It has been a long time since our last Sports Awards Evening, however, the wait was finally over on Thursday 22nd June as we were finally able to gather together and celebrate our students' incredible sporting achievements this academic year.

We were delighted to welcome back former student EMS6 student, Tony Harrington to be our Guest of Honour.

Tony began his refereeing career in the Teesside Junior Football Alliance at the age of 14, after completing a refereeing course at The English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award. An award that is still offered at school to this day.

After four years as an assistant referee in the English Football League, and four years as a National League referee, Tony was appointed to the English Football League referees list for the 2012-13 season.

In 2016 Tony was then promoted to a Select Group 2 referee. Tony has refereed twice at Wembley.

On 22nd May 2021 he took charge of the FA Trophy Final, followed eight days later by returning to officiate the 2012 EFL League One play-off final between Blackpool and Lincoln City. After becoming a Select Group 1 referee in June 2021, Tony officiated his first Premier League game on 16 December 2021.

After a short interview and Q&A session, we moved onto the distribution of awards.

Awards are given for a variety of reasons; sporting talent, teamwork, hard work, progress, excellence, leadership and significant sporting achievements. Students also received recognition for competitive individual and team achievements at school, regional or national level.

Mr Gray, Assistant Headteacher said: “It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the Sports Awards this year. The accomplishments from our students this year have been incredible and they all deserved their awards.  On behalf of EMS, I would like to thank Tony for spending the evening with us."

All the pictures from the evening are in the Gallery