On Saturday 7th October, The Edge Wigan played host to Wigan Council’s Be Well Services 2023 Believe Sports awards. The awards pay tribute to the fantastic volunteers and individuals who give up their time to help sporting clubs within the Borough and the night was full of Leopards connections.
Our Learning Disability Rugby League team won the Inclusion in Sport award in recognition of the brilliant work they’ve done this season, getting individuals with learning difficulties involved with Rugby League. It marks an incredible second year for the team, who only had one person turn up for their first training session, Gareth Jones who earned himself heritage number 001, Scott Burns’ team recently gave debuts to players carrying heritage numbers 26, 27 and 28 at The Leopards’ Den.
It was a very successful night for our LDRL team as their coach, Tom Simms picked up the prestigious Volunteer of the Year award. Tom, who has been involved with the team since their formation in 2021 was awarded the honour in acknowledgement of the work he does with the Leopards LDRL team and the many years of work he has done with Golborne Parkside, where he has been involved for 13 years. His work with Golborne Parkside saw him heavily involved with relaunching their youth section after it lost numbers over the years. They have rebranded as Golborne Parkside Pirates and gone from strength to strength under Tom’s guidance. Tom wasn’t able to attend the awards as he was away with his family but speaking to Leopards TV said: “I knew I had been nominated but never thought for one second I would win it. There were so many worthy winners in the category. I was made up just to be nominated. I have never done any coaching or volunteering for any reward. I do it because I love it and coaching gives me far more than I ever give it.”
Bedford High School year 7 team, who joined us at Wembley on Challenge Cup Final Day to play in the curtain raiser, The Champion Schools Final, took home the Team of the Year award. Bedford were unsuccessful on the day, losing out to Archbishop Sentamu Academy of Hull. The team joined us at The Leopards Den, to parade the Challenge Cup at half-time in our fixture against Catalans as owner Derek Beaumont wanted to recognise their brilliant achievement in reaching the final.
The Leopards Cheerleaders were the ones being cheered on Saturday as they were finalists in the Club of the Year category and the Youth Pom World Champions were runners-up in the Team of the Year category.
Congratulations to all nominees and winners at the Believe Sports Awards!
