Luke Granger recently became the North Staffordshire Community Rugby Coach and the first coach in the country to be appointed under the new Community Sports Coaches Scheme. This national programme, funded partly by central government through the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, aims to get both full and part time coaches working in local communities across the country in a range of sports.

The North Staffordshire coaching position has been on the cards for a number of years after being identified in the action plan drawn up by the North Staffs Rugby Development Group, consisting of all the local clubs, local authorities and schools representatives. The funding was not available to realise the potential of such a post until six months ago when the Sport Across Staffordshire Partnership contacted RDO Nic Scott to see whether there was any chance of rugby bidding for the funding, as the county had been identified as one of nine pilot schemes.

Luke is already making a real difference to the lives of young people. Working closely with the sports development officers from Newcastle, Staffs Moorlands and Stoke on Trent (who between them have raised half the funding), he is coaching or is booked to coach well into the future in many of the area’s primary or secondary schools. During March, he coached over 1,000 young people.

Nic Scott, Rugby Development Officer for Staffordshire said, “The potential for this scheme is huge. I’ve already confirmed the funding for a similar post covering Walsall and Wolverhampton and am close to one covering Cannock and the southern area. We should also be increasing the hours we have available for our Head Girls Coach, Keely Fathers, from 10-20, which will help to develop that aspect of the game. All these could be in place for the start of next season.”