Congratulations to Matthew Cooper who has his sights set on becoming a professional referee in top flight football.

Matthew, aged 16, from Blackburn, has been refereeing since 2014 and is currently a referee for the North West Counties Football League - he refs for the Blackburn Combination League and the Blackburn Sunday League. Matthew is a Level 7 Referee at the minute and looking for promotion this year. 
His favourite referee is Martin Atkinson and he has also had the honour of meeting Mike Dean, Mark Clattenburg, Anthony Taylor and John Moss at the Blackburn Referee Association Meeting.  This inspired him to continue in the field and to be the best he can be.

Matthew says, “I really enjoy football and play for St Mary’s College, but I wanted to get to know every aspect of the game so I naturally started looking at refereeing.  I’m hoping my determination and enthusiasm for the love of the game will help me set my sights on becoming a professional referee in the major leagues in years to come.”

Congratulations also to George Hutchings who has successfully made it through to the Tennis National Championships.

George, 16, from Blackburn, participated in the British Colleges Tennis Tournament in December of last year and won the whole competition. Next he will be pitted against players from across the UK in the National Championships, which are to be held in Nottingham from 21st – 23rd April.
George started playing tennis when he was 5 years old, mainly due to the fact that his father was a tennis coach and his older brother Charlie, who won the same tournament last year, also plays tennis. He is currently training at Blackburn Northern Tennis Club and Middleton Virgin Active, as well as being previously trained at a high performance tennis centre in Nottingham.

George says, “I have played for Great Britain on many occasions and have competed at a high level in international tournaments. I hope this winning form continues. My short term goal is to make the top 100 ITF before I reach 18. My long term goal is to achieve the top ATP, which is incredibly tough but can be done through hard work and determination.”

Head of Sport Howard Best added, “We are very proud of the achievements and excellent progress that both Matthew and George have made in their respective sports. Like all top performers they are both highly talented, but in particular they show the necessary ambition and determination to continually seek to progress to the next level. Their progress is all the more impressive as they have to balance their sporting ambitions with their studies in BTEC Sport. We are confident that they will be very successful students and look forward to watching them develop into top level performers in the future.”