Stourport High School students sign up for rugby diploma
Three talented rugby students from Wyre Forest are celebrating after being signed up to the Worcester Warriors Senior Academy.
Wing/full-back Tobi Wilson, lock Cheick Kone and hooker Finn Theobald-Thomas, all year 13 students at Stourport High School , have been selected from the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE), a programme run as a sixth form option.
Aspiring professional players and students looking for a career in sport combine A-levels and BTECs with specialist rugby training led by the Warriors’ coaches at the school’s sixth form college.
Jane Millington, assistant principal and head of sixth form at Stourport High, said: “To have such a high level of success in just the third year of the programme at Stourport is a credit to the hard work of the students, their coaches and teachers.
“This firmly establishes DiSE as the go-to place to recruit the county’s next generation of elite rugby players.”
Tobi, who plays club rugby for Newport in Shropshire, is a member of this season’s England Under-18s development training squad and was a regular in Warriors’ successful Under-18s side last season.
Cheick, who was born and raised in the Ivory Coast and spent time in Italy before his family relocated to Wolverhampton, only took up rugby only two years ago, and plays for the city team. He was spotted by Matt Jones, Warriors’ Academy Outreach Coach, as part of the Project Rugby programme designed to increase participation in rugby by people from under-represented groups.
Finn also plays club rugby at Wolverhampton RFC and played in the back row for Warriors Under-18s last season but has now moved to his more familiar position at hooker.
The Stourport High School and VIth Form Centre is a member of the Severn Academies Educational Trust and chief executive Chris King said: “The DiSE programme is a shining example of how our schools offer many opportunities for our young people so they can discover and reach their potential.
“These are exciting times for Tobi, Cheick and Finn as they enter the Three Pears Warriors Academy at Sixways and we look forward to cheering them on to further success.”
