
We were very excited to welcome Jacksonville Jaguars NFL player Ayo Oyelola to our academy last week. Jaguars UK partnered with the 'Lives not Knives' charity to promote various sports options for students to pursue as a potential career. Ayo shared his story about starting the NFL's player pathway programme to join the Jaguars team.
Lives not Knives are a youth-led charity which provides 1:1 mentoring and guidance to around 30 young people each year through their collaboration with our Assistant Principal and Safeguarding Leads. The workshop gave our students the opportunity to ask Ayo Oyelola some questions, in a Q&A session.
Following the Q&A session, the students were given a personalised Jacksonville Jaguars jersey with Ayo's team number '35' and participated in a 'JagTag' session with Ayo and the JagTag coaches. JagTag is a simplified version of American football, which is played in schools and community hubs in London and other major cities in the UK.
Our students were inspired and motivated by the session, with some expressing interest in continuing to play American football.
Take a look at all the pictures taken from the day, here.
Photo credit: Paul Bogle