OnSide President’s Cup 2018!

It was our OnSide Youth Zones Annual President’s Cup on Saturday at The Way Youth Zone, where young people from across the OnSide network came together to participate in a host of sports, arts and drama challenges with Wigan Youth Zone taking home the highly coveted Presidents Cup 2018!  

The OnSide President’s Cup, kindly supported each year by Norman K. Stoller CBE KStJ DL, President of Mahdlo (Oldham Youth Zone), truly embodies the inclusive spirit of a Youth Zone; it sees extraordinary young people from across the Network come together as Chorley (only opening on the 5th May), Wigan, Blackburn, Manchester, Bolton, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Blackburn, Oldham, Warrington, Wirral, and London come together to make friends, take part in some fantastic activities and compete to be the Network winner!

There were a number of fantastic activities throughout the day with both junior, senior and inclusion teams taking part, including Fencing, Dodgeball, Wheelchair basketball, Virtual golf, Fashion Up-Cycle and many more.

Each Youth Zone also submitted a music video prior to Saturday which was judged on the creativeness of the song and how well the video showcased teamwork – there were some incredible entries, but The Way waltzed home with this particular accolade! Check out this year’s entries here.

The day ended with the now iconic OnSide ‘dance-off’, which saw Wigan Youth Zone and Bolton Lads and Girls Club compete in the final two which was a spectacular end the day with Bolton proving victorious, much to their delight!

But there can only be one overall winner and this year, it belonged to Wigan!  They showed an incredible tenacity throughout the day – but for us it was the amazing sight of the other youth zones enthusiastically congratulate the winners that was the highlight of the day!

Before the medals and awards were given out, The Way gave out a very special award for Creative Endeavour, awarded to Esme Gillett, to commemorate the recent loss of their youth worker and colleague, Matthew Dittmer, who was an integral part of The Way community and an inspiration to countless young people.

All the young people were presented with a souvenir medal before Warrington Youth Club was presented with the Fair Play trophy, presented by sponsor and OnSide Founder, Bill Holroyd CBE DL.   Wigan then lifted the winning President’s Cup 2018 trophy – presented by event sponsor Norman K. Stoller CBE KStJ DL.

The whole day was a huge success and The Way were incredible hosts throughout!  The day was a fantastic demonstration of fair play, teamwork, individuality and friendship – here’s to 2019!