Sports Academies

Our academies will give you the opportunity to combine your academic studies with playing competitively and at a very high level.

At Cardinal Newman, we have Sports Academies in Netball and Basketball, and both men’s and women’s Football. Our Academies will give you the opportunity to combine your academic studies with playing competitively and at a very high level. You will be able to improve your playing skills, play against the best teams regionally and nationally, as well as apply for scholarship opportunities and placements in America.

Being part of one of the Academies involves up to two training sessions per week, which will be incorporated into your timetable. This provides the opportunity for students to maximise both their academic and sporting potential. There are also competitive matches every week. All members of the sports academies will also benefit from built in curriculum support for all of their subjects, college tracksuits and free gym memberships.

Membership to any Academy is by trial only and can be combined with a full range of A-Level and/or BTEC subjects. You do not necessarily have to be studying A-Level PE or BTEC Sport to join one of our Academy teams. They enable students who may have previously played at town or county level to continue their development as individuals and as team players.

Other non-academy sports include Badminton, Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Hockey and Rugby.

Trials

Entrance to the Football, Netball and Basketball Academies are by trial only, if you are in Year 11 and have applied to study at Cardinal Newman in September and are interested in joining any of our Sports Academy Teams, please fill in the contact form below:

Sports Academy Trials >

Entry to the Dance Academy is by audition, which takes place in the September of you starting College.

You will be invited for a trial if you register your interest above or with the sports/performing arts department.

Football

The Football First Team competes in the Association of Colleges (AOC) North West Elite League, which is for the top 10% of Colleges nationally. The College has most notably been national champions twice and were AOC League Champions in 2018. The First Team also successfully made it to the National Cup Semi finals in 2020 before COVID halted the tournament.

Netball

The Newman Netball Academy has an outstanding track record of awards and titles under their collective belts. They have achieved un-paralleled success in recent years; remaining the top Netball College team in the North West. Regionally, the College remains AOC League Champions for the fifth successive season. On a National level, the Netball Academy was the English Schools’ Under 19 National Netball Champions for 3 years in a row, as well as AOC National Knockout Cup winners for the same three years. In 2019/20 two students were selected to play for the GB National Squad.

There are five teams in total, allowing players of all levels to take part, regardless of ability, whether it be competing in national finals or simply playing for fun against local rivals.

Basketball

The Basketball Academy has been running for over 10 years and competes in the AOC North West Men’s league. The Academy have previously won the league 3 years in a row.  This year the Academy are competing in the AOC National Basketball Men’s Knockout Cup.

Badminton

The Badminton Club at Cardinal Newman is open to staff and students of all abilities, whether you wish to play for fun, or at a more competitive level. Students have competed in the National Finals for the last 5 years.

Hockey

There are three Hockey teams at Cardinal Newman: Men’s, Women’s and mixed, who all play regularly in fixtures both nationally and locally. They train weekly on our astro-turf pitches and have a number of individual and team achievements each year, including regularly competing in the AOC Cup. Individual successses include three students in 2019/20 being selected to play for the GB National Squad and in 2018 Rachel Greenwood took up a scholarship at Havard University in America to play for the University Hockey Team. Read more about Rachel here.

Women’s Football

The Women’s Football Team currently play in the AOC North West league and are consistently placed amongst the top ranked teams across the region. Training weekly, they also have regular league and cup matches across the North West.

AOC Sport

The College remains an active Association of Colleges (AOC) Sport member and students represent the College in a wide variety of sports. Successful students in each sport, who win their area competition, progress to the AOC National Finals at Nottingham University.

Students can represent the College in the following sports:

– Tennis
– Table Tennis
– Badminton
– Squash
– Volleyball
– Hockey
– Golf
– 7-a-side Football
– Rugby Union
– Basketball
– Netball
– Swimming
– Cross Country
– Track and Field Athletics