Sports education business has a winning approach to growth

A specialist provider of sports education for primary schools has unveiled ambitious growth plans for the next 12 months that will see it open in 20 more towns and cities across the UK.

SportsCool works with schools to enhance the delivery of curricular and extra-curricular physical education, with the view that every child should have the chance to participate, progress and achieve.

Founded in Lancashire, Blackburn headquartered SportsCool currently has 28 operations across the whole of the UK.

It works closely with more than 400 education providers and has over 100 people working within its organisation.

The company’s management team has a wealth of coaching, sport, education, and business knowledge and has set out plans for the next 12 months to accelerate its growth journey. Those plans include opening 20 new franchises in all parts of the UK.

SportsCool has just opened branches in Leicester and south Glasgow, offering schools its diverse range of sports, from fencing and archery to ultimate frisbee and tri-golf.

All its activities are underpinned by the company’s ethos of “Educate: Motivate: Participate”. Its coaches make it their mission to find a sport for every child to love.

The business was founded in Blackburn by sports coaches Lee Lysons, Matt Parker and Andy Preston, whose vision is to make a positive difference to the mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing of the nation’s children.

SportsCool director Lee Lysons said: “We feel we are at the start of an exciting journey for the business as we work to grow it nationally, and we are seeing increasing interest in what we do and what we can deliver.

“We’ve witnessed solid growth over the last 12 months and as a result we are now set to accelerate that programme further, with plans to open 20 more franchises in 2022.

“The ethos behind the business is simple. At SportsCool we believe that sports education is fundamental to a child’s development and for 15 years we have been working with primary schools to that end.

“We also believe that every child should have the chance to participate, progress and achieve in physical activities. This in turn has a profound effect on self-esteem, confidence, motivation, physical aptitude, and all-round mental and physical health.

“We use positive rewards in everything that we do, our sessions raise aspirations, are accessible to all, and, most of all, they are fun. As a result, we see the youngsters that we work with blossom into confident, healthy and aspiring individuals.”

He added: “We are also giving people the opportunity to make a career of something that they love, setting up a coaching company, confident in the training, support and business development that we give them.

“We are with them every step of their business journey. We look for people with passion, who want to make a real difference to children. That is at the heart of everything we do.

“Our coaches continue to train in new areas of sports education and take part in continual professional development so that we can offer the best experience to the children and teaching staff that we work with.

“We aim to continue to be leaders in our field, inspiring increasing numbers of children and giving people the chance to forge winning careers in sports coaching.”

• For further Lancashire business news, advice and analysis subscribe to Lancashire Business View or join the LBV Hub from just £2.50 per month. Click here to subscribe now.