WEST Cheshire College have appointed a new sports maker in a bid to encourage more students to get involved in sporting activities.

Debbie Kendall’s new role will aim to continue the legacy of the 2012 Olympics and drive up student participation through informal and social sport in the college.

The appointment is part of the National Lottery’s £20 million funding from Sports England to improve sporting opportunities for young people.

It comes after research from Sports England’s Active People Research Survey revealed that college students play the least amount of sport amongst young people aged 16 and over in education.

Debbie, formerly a football development officer at Cheshire County Football Association, said: “I’m very excited about my new post as a sports maker.

“The aim is to get students to regularly participate in sports and physical activities by doing at least 30 minutes of exercise a week.

“The college has fantastic facilities and I hope to encourage more of our students to use them and remind them how fun and beneficial doing regular sports activities can be.

“The different sports we will be offering include badminton, netball, rugby and volleyball,” she added.

As part of Debbie’s role she will be using West Cheshire College’s state-of-the-art Fitzone Fitness gym which contains all the latest training equipment from Cybex and the FitLinxx computerised exercise tracking system.

Helen Owen, manager of Care Services said the college was ‘delighted’ to welcome Debbie to their team.

“Many young people get out of the routine of doing sport when they leave school and having a sports maker within the college will remind them how much fun sport is and will help to build it into their weekly schedule,” she said.

For details about the gym call 01244 656 330 or www.west-cheshire.ac.uk.