Badminton boom time for East Staffs

The East Staffordshire Badminton Development Group (ESBDG) have been successful in their application to become a BADMINTON England Performance Centre. The ESBDG will receive £30,000 over 3 years to set up the centre and help with player development with the aim of producing world class players.

East Staffs Badminton Development Group (ESBDG) is celebrating after gaining privileged status within the sport in this country. 

East Staffs has been named as one of the first ten accredited Performance Centres in the country by BADMINTON England, which means a windfall of £10,000 per year until 2011 to help with talent identification and development of players, on and off court, ultimately aiming to produce more players, like Tracy Hallam, capable of medal success.

The group, which is spearheaded by Alan Rogers of Barton Badminton Club have worked tirelessly over the last ten months to get the application up to the highest possible standard. This is an excellent achievement considering the high standards that have been set by BADMINTON England and that East Staffs is one of the first 10 performance centres nationally with a target of 50 in total.

Liam Rooney of East Staffs Borough Council Sports Development Team was delighted with the news. “This is brilliant news for badminton in Burton, Uttoxeter and the whole of East Staffordshire. The award of Performance Centre status is a tremendous boost for the young players and coaches from Barton and Uttoxeter Premier Badminton Clubs which will create additional coaching opportunities for existing juniors from not just the established clubs but from the wider area and I look forward to us developing local stars of the future who can challenge for medals on the world stage.”

A series of talent identification and coaching sessions will be jointly programmed to enable players from across all of East Staffordshire to be assessed. Players will join the Player Pathway with an annual coaching programme designed to meet the needs of the player at each stage of their development including links to County Squads and High Performance Centres.

The centre will officially open in September and further details will be provided soon. As well as the Performance Centre Coaching sessions there will also be a Junior and Senior Club at the Paulet High School which along with the other clubs in the area will welcome new players.

Anyone interested in the Performance Centre Sessions or the club should email Cheryl Whittingham, Secretary of ESBDG - cheekychez83@hotmail.com

For more information about performance centres and club development please contact the county development officer or visit the BADMINTON England website at www.badmintonengland.co.uk