Schools and Youth

 Chairman’s Welcome

I would like to wish you a warm welcome to Cheshire Schools & Youth Association.

We are very proud of our heritage and take our responsibility for developing junior badminton very seriously. It is our aim to provide the very best opportunities for the young people of our County.

We came into being in 2004 following the boundary realignment of Merseyside Schools BA and Greater Manchester Schools BA, which resulted in parts of each joining forces with Cheshire Schools BA to form our present Association.

Since that time we have established a network of Regional Cells and Performance Centres that geographically cover the County and have approximately 200 affiliated junior members. Players are drawn from local clubs and schools and are provided with a structured coaching programme by qualified Badminton England coaches who are ably supported by a pool of dedicated volunteer organisers.

Players from the cells are invited to attend our County squad practice sessions on a fortnightly basis. These are held centrally in the Chester area for U17’s, U15’s, U13’s and our even younger Development Group and it is from here that players are selected to represent the County.

Our mission is to provide high quality coaching and as many opportunities as possible for our players to develop. This is made possible by our committed army of volunteer Team Managers and Committee Members who freely give up many hours of their time.

We are now beginning to feel the benefits of this hard work, as each week our young players are taking part in tournaments up and down the country and recording success.

Our most notable team achievements over the last six years have been seeing our U15’s crowned National Team Challenge Champions in 2009 and a rapid rise by our U17 ICT team from 13th in 2006 to a dazzling 2nd position in 2010. Individual successes of our players are too numerous to mention. We also have several players achieving National recognition who have then gone on to represent their Country.

Whilst winning is important it is not the only thing that motivates us. It is just as important that our young players get the chance to participate and earn the opportunity to represent their County, which they do with great pride and enthusiasm.

Karl Bergh (Chairman)