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North East College team nets record-breaking league win

A talented netball team has been crowned regional champions following a season of success.

Gateshead College’s Netball Academy A-team came top of the British Colleges Sport (BCS) North East Netball League, due in-part to record-breaking victories against teams from across the region.

The team competed in home and away games against six other teams and notched a seriers of victories which included a 94-12 thrashing of Prior Pursglove College, an 88-16 mauling of Stockton Riverside College and a 75-10 demolition of Hartlepool Sixth Form College – the biggest wins ever recorded in this league.

Julie Kimber, the Gateshead College Netball Head Coach, said: “The team has worked really hard this year to achieve the best scores and improved on each performance. The girls are all very professional and driven, which has led to a fantastic year all round.”

To cap a success-laiden year ,Amy Gibson and Alex Rhodes were both selected for Team Northumbria National Talent League squads and Alex Rhodes from Washington was also selected for the British Colleges’ National Squad.

The 17 year-old, who is enrolled on the Level 3 Sports Studies in Team Sports course at Gateshead College, said: “It’s been a really great year for both the academy and my netball career. I’ve been given many great opportunities with the help of the college, without which I probably wouldn’t have been able to progress my career and get a chance to showcase my skills on the national stage.”

Based at Gateshead College’s Academy for Sport, the netball academy offers state-of-the-art facilities alongside expert coaching for full-time students aged 16 - 19. Coach Julie Kimber has gained several awards in her netball career, including North East Coach of the year, North East Grass Roots Coach and was awarded a special recognition award from the South Tyneside sports awards in 2013. She is also the Head Coach for the British College National Squad and has recetly been honoured in the BCS hall of fame for all of her work for BCS over the last 15 years.

Gateshead College’s Academy for Sport is based at Gateshead International Stadium, and contains 12 specialist sports academies including men and women’s football, athletics, cricket, basketball, rugby, boxing, judo, netball golf, swimming and rowing.

The state of the art academy is used by leading elite athletes who often train alongside students. The state-of-the-art facilities include specialist IT integrated classrooms, sports science facilties, a performace lab, an aerobics studio, an 83m-long athletics hall and outdoor artificial and grass pitches.

For more information on the netball academy please email julie on julie.kimber@gateshead.ac.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gateshead College .