p1 2/7/10 08:46 Page 1 2010 p2 1/7/10 15:26 Page 1 What does the Carnegie Challenge Cup mean to you? CARNEGIE CHALLENGE CUP FINAL Saturday 28th August, kick off 2.30pm, Wembley TICKETS £21 - £76. SPECIAL FAMILY TICKET OFFER*: £55 & £79 BOOK NOW, Call 0844 856 1113 or visit www.rugbyleaguetickets.co.uk For Hospitality call 0844 856 1114. For Disabled enquiries call 0844 856 1113 or e-mail [email protected] *2 adults & 2 children. Offer on £21 & £31 tickets p3 1/7/10 15:27 Page 1 Welcome to the Carnegie Champion Schools Finals ON behalf of the RFL, I would like to welcome you all to the finals of the 2010 Carnegie Champion Schools. The tournament has enjoyed another successful year and the competition which is open to all High Schools across Great Britain remains the largest Rugby League knock-out competition in the world. The Carnegie Champion Schools tournament is a great way to introduce young people to Rugby League and creates exciting opportunities for them to play alongside their school friends and enjoy a fantastically beneficial sporting experience. We have seen in previous years that many players involved in these finals have gone on to have very successful careers within the sport and some have even reached a professional playing level. In recent years, Sam Tomkins, Joe have been a part of the Carnegie Champion Westerman and Richie Myler have all Schools in 2010. The tournament would not featured in the Carnegie Champion Schools be such a success without your input and Tournament and gone on to forge high dedication. profile careers in Super League. I would also like to thank Leeds This is something I hope will inspire Congratulations must go to all the teams Metropolitan University for the support they young players to continue with the sport and who have reached the finals in their have given Champion Schools via the make them aspire to similar levels of respective age groups for all the hard work Carnegie brand. This is an element of the success. I am sure that some of the players which they have put in throughout the highly successful partnership between in action today will be stars of the future. season which has now paid off. Carnegie and our sport. It is pleasing to see that the competition This year’s Carnegie Challenge Cup All that remains for me to say is ‘best of continues to develop and grow in areas Final curtain raiser is between Dowdales luck’ to those involved in the finals and a outside the sport’s traditional heartlands. School and Temple Moor High at Wembley massive thank you to every player, coach, Brentwood County High became the first Stadium. This and all the other exciting match official, teacher, parent and guardian London side to reach the finals of the finals are sure to provide fantastic who has participated in the 2010 Carnegie Carnegie Champion Schools competition experiences for everyone involved. Champion Schools. which highlights the development of the I would like to take this opportunity to Richard Lewis sport in the South. thank all the teachers and volunteers who Chairman - Rugby Football League Leeds Met Carnegie - University of Rugby League ON behalf of Leeds of the same values that years and, during our Metropolitan University, we developed the game as we partnership with the RFL, the are proud to welcome you to know it today. The sense of competition has continued to today’s Carnegie Champion community, a commitment to grow and expand across the School Tournament finals. excellence, recognition of the country with each stage of the It is a unique competition importance of continuing to competition producing that continues to build on its innovate whilst never exceptional Rugby League. growing success and like our forgetting the importance of This has been all the more university, strives to inspire our history and heritage, are evident this year with national talented young people to all things that are important to finalists teams from Cumbria achieve their full potential. us here at Leeds all the way down to London. For the last five years the Metropolitan. We would like to name Carnegie has been We hope that as you learn congratulate the teachers, synonymous with Rugby more about our values as a coaches, volunteers, parents League. Our involvement runs University you will recognise and guardians who have right through the game at all our commitment to provide guided and supported their levels from schools, colleges opportunities for a diverse teams on their journey to the and universities, amateur and range of participants as we national finals. We wish you professional as we proudly enable them to reach their full all good luck for today and represent and uphold the potential. your future careers both on values of Rugby League. We have now been and off the field. Our support of the sport involved with Carnegie Gareth Davies, runs deep as we share many Champion Schools for four Leeds Metropolitan University www.carnegiechampionschools.co.uk 3 p4 1/7/10 15:28 Page 1 Feltham Year 8 Girls have SINCE its inception in 2003, the made the Carnegie Champion Schools competition has Champion Schools become firmly embedded in the South of Tournament Finals England as the competition structure continues to grow with significant momentum on an annual basis. The 2009-2010 initiative saw over 190 boys and 40 girls teams go head-to-head in their local festivals and fixtures, all vying for a place in the coveted London and the South East regional finals. Notably, over the past seven years 1,003 boys teams (and 70 girls teams since 2008) stemming from over 100 schools across 10 County Sports Partnerships have been engaged in the Champion Schools scheme in the region. The developments of the schools game has been attributed to many factors over the past decade, namely passionate teachers, local development staff and volunteers who aspire to give their players a chance to experience a school sport that has been unfamiliar to South of the heartlands for all but recent years. It is however, the values and core responsibilities of both the governing body and Carnegie themselves that has made Southern success the product so attractive to not only new regardless of knowledge and experience “The popularity of the competition has and emerging schools, but firmly instils of the game. Now with over 65% of all dictated that looking forward to 2011 the the competition in many of the Southern schools that enter the London and South- structure will aim to increase from eight institution’s annual sporting curriculums. East regional festivals putting forward two sub regional preliminary rounds to 12, The open and inclusive ethics of the or more year groups, Rugby League’s accommodating over 280 boys and 60 competition is reflected at all stages of the days of being a ‘development’ sport in the girls teams. For the first time in the history regional structure, with sub-regional South are all but coming to an end. of the south we have a national finalist in festivals taking place in the likes of Steve Davis the regional co-lead on Brentwood County High at Year 8, and Richmond and Lambeth, boroughs that the Carnegie Champion Schools with the continued development of the are at the opposite end of the social and Tournament and RFL’s Development schools game, we hope this will be a economical scales of deprivation in Officer for the East said: “Once again the permanent fixture for our region.” London. Carnegie and the RFL offer out diverse and inclusive nature of the Brentwood Head of Physical the Carnegie Champion Schools system Carnegie Champion Schools Competition Education, Daniel Iacono said: to all secondary schools, boys and girls, has been received as a great success in “Brentwood County High School has been year’s 7-11 who wish to take part the South. playing Rugby League for the past five years and the rise of the profile of the Brentwood game in those five years has been School are the incredible, when I first started at the pride of Essex school only a handful of students even knew the game existed and no one at the school played now we have more than 130 students boys and girls who train weekly and who cannot stop talking about teams like the Leeds Rhinos, St Helens, Wigan and Harlequins. “Now we find our little school from Essex going to the National Finals. This tremendous achievement is due to hard work from students and the support of all the staff who give up their time to coach. “The icing on the cake would be to win and become the first team from London and the South to win the Carnegie Champion Schools Final, however we know we are coming up against a very good team from Outwood Grange, we hope it is a great final." www.carnegiechampionschools.co.uk 4 p5 1/7/10 15:29 Page 1 th 7 HILLINGDON 2 y Welcome from a rid SPORT & LEISURE COMPLEX VENUEF Ian Szwandt ESRL Chairman WE have reached the exciting THIS year sees a change in venue final stages of the 2010 Carnegie for the Carnegie Champion Schools Champion Schools Tournament, Finals. After four years at RAF which is now in its eighth year. Uxbridge we are now moving to the The competition - a joint newly built Hillingdon Sport and initiative between the RFL and Leisure Complex. English Schools Rugby League - The new £31m Sports and is open to every secondary Leisure Complex offers a new school in England, Wales and sporting and healthy living hub for Scotland.