Pictured L to R: Jaroslaw Obuchowski, Dion Chapman, Dan Stocks, Aaron Small

Two former Southgate students, Jaroslaw Obuchowski and Aaron Small, have been awarded a Middlesex University Scholarship.

Given the large number of students competing for scholarships, Jaroslaw and Aaron deserve to be very proud of their awards. Both Jaroslaw and Aaron are now in the first year of studying Sports Science degrees with Middlesex and have very promising futures. They were nominated for scholarships by lecturer in sport Dan Stocks, who heads up the centre of rugby education program.

Dan commented “Aaron and Jerry work extremely hard both on and off the rugby field and have been rewarded for their efforts. I am sure they will be successful in their endeavours as they understand the importance of continuous effort in achieving goals”.

They join former Southgate student Nimai Parmar as rugby players from Southgate who have been awarded scholarships with Middlesex University.

In addition to their scholarships, they were also selected for the South England universities representative side that competed at the regional championships in Widnes on 26th & 27th March. This team was made up of the top 20 players studying in FE/HE in the South of England. In addition to Aaron & Jaroslaw, current Southgate student Dion Chapman, who studies an NVQ level 2 in coaching, was included in the squad.

South England, who were coached by Southgate lecturer Dan Stocks made the final for the first time in the 12 year history of the competition. They beat the Scotland Exiles 32-0 and the North East 18-6 on the way to the final, where they faced the Midlands. With two minutes to go and the score tied at 22-all, South England gave away a penalty which the Midlands kicked to win the game 24-22.

Following the competition, 7 of the South England team, including Aaron Small were added to the England universities train on squad, with a further two added to the Scotland squad.