October 2011 For immediate release Wilf Paish scholars announced Academic scholarships to honour one of athletics best-known

coaches have been awarded by Leeds Metropolitan University. The Wilf Paish Scholarship Fund was launched earlier this year to enable the University to support talented athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds and help them realise their full potential. The first recipients of the scheme have been announced as Stephen Potter and Robbie Hill, who are both studying for a Masters degree in Sport Coaching. Yorkshire-based Paish was coach of javelin aces Tessa Sanderson and Mick Hill, with more than 100 of the athletes who came under his guidance becoming Olympians; building a fitting legacy to support athletes in need is something that was close to Wilfs heart. Stephen Potter and Robbie Hill have received the scholarship to fund their postgraduate studies, giving them access to some of the worlds best coaches through Wilfs network and supporting their own coaching ambitions. Speaking about the scholarship, football coach Stephen, said: Im delighted to have received the opportunity to continue my studies through the Wilf Paish scholarship and Im keen to carry his legacy on as I aspire to reach his potential. Robbie Hill, who currently coaches at West Park rugby club, added: This is a massive opportunity to continue my education and pursue my ambition to

work as a professional coach. I love coaching and believe that the role of a coach is very important in sport as well as other areas of life. Later in the year, a further seven Wilf Paish Athletics Scholarships will be announced, to assist talented track and field athletes in need of financial aid to help them cover the costs of training so that they may reach their full potential. Wilf Paish trained to be a PE teacher at Carnegie College, now part of Leeds Metropolitan University, before taking a teaching post in Essex. the early sixties and has been an adopted Yorkshireman ever since. His most famous coaching success was with javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson who moved to Leeds after a disappointing Olympics in 1980. Paishs original thinking and innovative coaching methods helped her to kick-start her career and she subsequently won gold at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Speaking about Wilfs influence on his own career, Mick Hill, who now works as an elite coach at Leeds Met said: I met Wilf 31 years ago when I came to join in a training session with his Yorkshire and Humberside Athletics Squad at Carnegie. From that day onwards the direction of my life changed towards athletics as I was taken under his wing as a promising young javelin thrower. "His love of athletics was absolute and his knowledge, enthusiasm, coaching and teaching expertise has been experienced by hundreds of thousands of athletes, coaches and teachers all over the globe either through direct contact with him or through his extensive written work. Ends For further details please contact Mark Dorey in the News and Media team at Leeds Met on 0113 812 3021 or email m.dorey@leedsmet.ac.uk He then returned to Yorkshire after being appointed as National Coach for the North in

Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has 30,000 students and 3, 000 staff. The University has achieved its best ever Research Assessment Exercise results. Sports-Related Studies is in the top 6 institutions in the country with research rated at the highest levels of 4* and 3*. Leeds Met has been rated the top university in the UK for its language support, accommodation quality and learning spaces in the 2010 Autumn Wave of the International Student Barometer and sixth in the world for the quality of its lectures. The Universitys award-winning learning environments include Broadcasting Place, voted the best tall building in the world in 2010 by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and also winner of the 2010 Leeds Architecture Awards New Building category, the iconic Rose Bowl building, awarded Best Commercial Property Development in the 2009 Yorkshire Property Awards and the pioneering Carnegie Village student accommodation. Leeds Metropolitan is one of only a handful of UK universities to have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard.