Sporting Successes for Standish Students

Every year at Standish, students surpass themselves with their outstanding sporting achievements and this year was no different. We caught up with a few of the boys who have recently signed academy contracts with professional sporting teams as they picked up their results.

This year, Sonny Astley is now planning on continuing his love of rugby by combining it with his further studies. Sonny – alongside Georgie McDermott – has signed for Leigh Leopards. Sonny, is now celebrating his nine GCSEs grades including a Grade 5 and 6 in his two English GCSEs.

George Sumner was also celebrating his GCSE results after securing ten GCSEs – including passing both English and maths with 5s and 4s. George has now signed a two-year scholarship contract with Wigan Athletic – with a professional contract attached already. “I’ve just started back for preseason. We’re training four times a week and sometimes double sessions. I’ll be studying three days a week too through Wigan and Leigh College.” George said. “It’s a BTech sports science course – it has modules for coaching, physio and refereeing too.”

George Butler was another sporting talent who received excellent results on Thursday. He achieved nine GCSEs including four Grade 5s and a Grade 6. George has split his time studying with pursuing his talent for trampolining – including securing a spot in the GB squad. “I’ve been doing it for nine years since seeing my cousin do it. The dream is to move from the Junior Squad to one day competing at the Olympics.”

Asked about his results, George added, “I’m very proud of my English Language result – I was a bit worried about it! I also want to thank Mrs Roberts for her help with my maths.” George has secured an apprenticeship at DL M&E Building Services in Westhoughton in Mechanical Electrical Design.

Another sporting success on the day was Oliver Holdsworth who was celebrating his results that have secured him a place at the Steven Gerrard Sports Academy for next year. Oliver, who had to balance his studies at school with his commitments for the Mercedes F1 Academy too, admitted it’s been tough to find the time for all his sporting interests and his academic studies at the same time. “There were times when I was revising for subjects at various racetracks around the country!” Oliver is already looking forward to representing the SG Academy’s football team, “I’ll have fixtures coming up against the likes of Liverpool and local ones like Chorley too!”

Mason Hesketh is another sporting talent who has secured a place at Burscough’s Football College to do a Level 3 Sports Science qualification. “It’s five days a week study as well as training and playing games and training too. There’s opportunities for football tours too – travelling to Dubai and America to play American college teams.”

Congratulations to all the students and their achievements!

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