Whitworth students net school trip of a lifetime

Footballing students from Whitworth Community High School on their school trip to Madrid

A five-day footballing trip to Spain saw 56 students from Whitworth Community High School walking in the footsteps of giants.

They toured the stadia of Real Madrid, home to Christiano Ronaldo, and Athletico Madrid, played eight fixtures and took part in four training sessions.

The packed week saw the party split into four teams with a Year 11, Year 10 and Year 9 team and a combined girls’ and boys’ team of different ages.

Only the combined team won all their matches with Years 10 and 9 winning one game and Year 11 losing both.

Todd Griffiths, who plays for the school team and Littleborough, said: “It was a good experience and we got to tour the facilities, which were brilliant.

“We learnt how they play and they concentrate on passing and we had to find someone to pass the ball to when we were training. We often play the long ball where we kick it up the field and hope someone runs up to it.

“What I learnt in Spain will help me when I am playing football for school.”

When Abigail Dawson, who plays for Bury, and the seven other girls turned up the trainers had to source changing facilities on another floor because they were not used to having female footballers.

Abigail said: “The whole experience was useful, I enjoyed getting to see the different training facilities and the coaches pushed us hard.”

Harvey Waugh, who plays for Whitworth Valley, said: “It was good to see how they played football, it was very attacking.

“We were trained by people who normally work with the Real Madrid youth teams and having the experience of going to one of the biggest clubs in the world and getting taught how they play football was amazing.”