Hawks Flying High thanks to Foundation Funding

Members of the Exeter Chiefs Community department were given their first taste of action with the West Country Hawks after they were invited to take part in a full-on game with the popular wheelchair rugby club.

Coaches Andrew Dudley, Aron Struminski and Richard Bright joined members of the Hawks at St Luke’s Sports Hall for an action-packed session working alongside former Chiefs Academy coach Chris Perkins.

Chris, who is heavily involved in coach education with the RFU, is also helping to develop a Wheelchair Rugby specific coaching course alongside the national governing body, Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby.

And with one of the biggest barriers to entry of the game being the specially modified chairs that the players use, Exeter Foundation – the official club charity of the Chiefs – recently helped the Hawks by helping to fund a number of new chairs for the team to use.

Keen to help test out the new chairs, the Community trio met up with some of the Hawks’ brightest young talent to not only talk about the popularity of the sport, but to also get struck into the action.

Needless to say, the young Hawks proved far too good on the day with Andrew remarking afterwards: “The game is incredibly fast paced and something that I struggled to keep up with! The speed and agility with which players manoeuvre their chairs is truly amazing.

“What the West Country Hawks are doing is fantastic and it’s something we are all keen to get involved with even more in the near future.”

To find out more about the Hawks, visit their website at http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/westcountryhawks

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