Sutton Sting announce today the resumption of the Sting School Hockey programme for the remainder of the 2011/12 ice hockey season.  The Sting's ENL Player/Coach Simon Offord has been appointed to be the Sting Community and School Support Officer and his role will be to engage with schools and deliver the programme in the local community.

The Sting School Hockey programme started in 2009 and Head Coach, Rob Saunders, delivered the programme to 200+ key stage 2 children at local "middle schools".  He said "Last year I went out to a number of schools close to Lammas to present our programme and I was really impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the kids, especially when we played some ball hockey."

For this year Saunders has appointed Simon Offord to over see and deliver the Schools Programme.  Offord joined the Sting as a player in the English National League team becoming team captain in 2010 and he has a long and distinguished ice hockey career behind him having won numerous championships with his hometown team in Sheffield.  Speaking about his appointment Offord said, "I am thrilled to become the face of Sutton Sting in the Community.  It's a privilege and an honour which I am really looking forward to.  I have spent lots of time teaching kids how to play ice hockey and recently started the power skating and dynamic systems play for the Sting Elite Player Development Programme so I know that going back to basics will present me with some great challenges as we take the Sting development models in to the classroom."

Last season Coach Saunders took his Sting off-ice training plans in to local schools for the first time and worked alongside the County Schools Partnership intiative supported by Ashfield District Council's Sport Development team.  The Sting who were the first Gold Award Club under the Active Ashfield club accreditation scheme have always supported the community and have a history of raising money for good causes as well as supporting local initiatives.  Sting Director Gary Apsley was until recently the Chair for the Active Ashfield Club Forum and knows all too well the importance of providing a community focus within the club's operations.  He said

"Rob did a fantastic job last year with our School programme and he was very keen that we continue with it.  But time pressures are great and we needed to find additional support which is precisely where Simon Offord comes in.  Simon is a perfect role model and an ideal candidate to lead our School and Community projects.  He has a degree in sports management from Sheffield University and is a supply teacher too so he has all of the credentials to ensure our programme is a success.  Not only that but he's a great hockey player who happens to be a fantastic kid's hockey coach too.  I know he will do a brilliant job!"

The Sting Schools programme will run until July 2012 and is open to any School in Ashfield and the surrounding districts.  A typical programme will run in blocks of four weeks and the Sting team will attend the school to deliver the programme which is based on meeting one of the five government recommended high quality 30-minute activity sessions per week as part of the Active Lifestyle intiative.

Anyone interested in this programme should contact Simon Offord on 07775 601 713 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .