Coach helps team lift national cup

Photo: Adam Scott

Alexa Collier (back left) is celebrating after her Withington Girls’ School team scooped the winners’ trophy in a prestigious national netball championship.

AN Oldham teacher has gone from being a netball champion to coaching the next generation of sporting champions.

Alexa Collier is celebrating after her Withington Girls’ School team scooped the winners’ trophy in a prestigious national netball championship.

The 24-year-old from Firwood Park, Chadderton, was delighted when Withington’s Under 13 netball team emerged victorious following a hard-fought match in Ilford against Essex-based Brentwood School in the final of the Independent Schools Netball Cup.

The talented Year 8 squad - coached by Alexa and Withington colleague Kate Orme - had beaten off tough competition from across the country in five qualifying rounds.

Alexa has played netball for Oldham, Lancashire and Manchester Thunder, and also trialled for England.

She has coached the U13 team since joining the school as a PE teacher last September and attributes the girls’ success in part to a rigorous training programme inspired by having worked with some of the UK’s top netball coaches.

“I have taken the best of the different approaches I have learnt from each of these amazing coaches to pass on in my specialist role at Withington,” said Alexa, who studied at North Chadderton School and Oldham Sixth Form College.

“It was a tense final and very tiring, particularly as the opposing team, being the local side, had between 200 and 300 supporters cheering them on, whereas we had only ten parents with us.

"It was tough for the girls particularly when the score was at a level draw and there was so much noise for the other side, but their hard work in training paid off.

"Their skills, fitness and tactical awareness helped them to keep fighting to the very end and it was a well deserved victory. My colleague Kate Orme and I are very impressed at the effort and commitment the girls have put in since September and we, and the whole school, are very proud of them all."

Alexa works in Withington’s PE Department on a part-time basis and has just been appointed by the Oldham Sport For All Centre in Failsworth to promote netball in schools as an extracurricular activity to 11-18 year-olds throughout the Oldham area.

She added: “Withington is generally known as a highly academic school, but what some people don’t realise is that the sporting opportunities available are fantastic.

"It is wonderful to teach girls who love learning. The girls and staff are all so friendly; it is a really happy, family atmosphere. Walking into work at Withington, I feel like I have stepped into a different world. It’s very special.”

Bursaries are also available for those wishing to enrol at the school. For more information call Toni Leden on 0161 249 3491 or email ledent@wgs.org.