Meet the Team

• Nicola Ryan, school sport director

  Nicola Ryan, school sport director

  Nicola started as the School Sport Director in September 2011 and is relishing the chance to sustain and develop the sporting opportunities the Merton Partnership brings to it’s youngsters. She was previously the South London Senior Competition Manager, based at Harris Academy Merton, since December 2006. Nicola gained a degree with honours in Sports Science at St Mary’s University, Twickenham in 2001 and went on to pursue a career in the sports industry for Richmond Council as a Sports Centre Manager and then onto Merton Council as a Leisure Development Officer.
  
  Nicola enjoys sport herself, playing Netball for New Malden NC and football. She is a level 2 UKCC Netball Coach and in 2009 she set up and developed the Merton Merlins Junior Netball Club.
• Vicky Griffiths, Sports Coordinator – Competition & School Games

  Vicky Griffiths, Sports Coordinator – Competition & School Games

  Vicky graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2006 with a degree in Sport Development and Physical Education. Since graduating, she has worked for Liverpool City Council’s Sport Development section working on an initiative called Sportslinx. Unfortunately, the programme was funded via the government and in December 2010 Vicky was made redundant due to government cuts.
  Sport, in particular Athletics is Vicky’s passion and she has represented Great Britain, most recently in the 2010 World Indoor Championships. Vicky’s event is 800m and her aim is to compete in this event at the 2012 Olympics.
  Vicky hopes to spread her passion and enthusiasm for sport in the Sport Coordinator role and looks forward to being able to create opportunities for children to engage in sport and physical activity through competitive school sport. Vicky has achieved a lot through her participation in sport and she would like to be seen as a positive role model encouraging ALL children that they too can enjoy and succeed in sport.
• Becky Forshaw, Sports Coordinator – Leadership & Disability

  Becky Forshaw, Sports Coordinator – Leadership & Disability

  Becky is new to the Merton SSP team as of September 2011 and will be taking a lead on leadership & disability as well as the Morden cluster of schools. Becky graduated in 2000 with a BA Hons in Sports Studies & Health Studies at St Martins College, Lancaster. Her first role was working for the Preston Sports Development Team as a Community Sports Coach, then progressing to Physical Activity Development Officer and Physical Activity Referral Officer. Becky then pursued to work in SSPs, and for the past 4 years has worked for the Croydon Sports Partnership as the Partnership Co-ordinator. During this post she was the lead for leadership, Professional Development, coach management and competitions for the Croydon’s schools.
  Becky's has an array of sport qualifications which include a UKCC level 2 in football and level 1s in multi skills, hockey, athletics, badminton and rounders. She is also a qualified level 3 personal trainer in health and fitness as well as GP Referral for dealing with health and fitness for clients with clinical conditions. She is a sports enthusiast, regularly participating in various activities and is currently the ladies 1st team captain for Croydon Hockey Club. Her greatest achievement is winning the British Colleges Hockey Tournament 2 years running whilst at Preston College.
• Tom Gardner, Sports Coordinator – Coaching

  Tom Gardner, Sports Coordinator – Coaching

  Tom started the role as Sports Co-ordinator (Coaching) in September 2011. Tom is responsible for the Merton SSP coaching programme, ensuring that PE and sporting activity delivered by MSSP coaches is of the highest quality. Tom is also responsible for the Mitcham cluster of schools, organising and delivering various sporting events and initiatives.
  Tom graduated from his Sports Psychology and Coaching Sciences degree at Bournemouth University in 2009. He takes a keen interest in all sports, particularly football and cricket. His claim to fame is taking a hat-trick off the first 3 balls of an innings. When Tom is not watching the beautiful game (Spurs on TV) he captaining his Saturday side to victory.
• Chris Murrell, Administration & Finance Officer

  Chris Murrell, Administration & Finance Officer

  Chris started work for the Partnership in December 2006, after being off work for 5 years to raise her Son. Chris enjoys working in the Partnership as sport is something she is very interested in, especially encouraging children to participate. She enjoys running, playing badminton and watching sport, namely Ipswich Town and horse racing. She is a member of the Elite Racing Club and loves a day out to watch her horses run. Chris lists her favourite achievement as running the 5km race for life.
• Tanya Richardson, School Sport Internship

  Tanya Richardson, School Sport Internship

  Tanya joined the partnership in September 2011 as part of an internship. She graduated from Brighton University after completing a three-year degree with Honours, studying Sport Studies with PE. Tanya has a wealth of knowledge in Physical Education, Sport Policy, Gender and the Politics of Sport, and hopes to gain further experience within the partnership and sustain their strong links in and around Merton. As well as her sporting studies Tanya enjoys coaching Gymnastics and Trampolining at her local gym club as well as developing and mentoring the future coaches through their exams.
  Gymnastics is one of Tanya’s favourite sports and her determination in her early years of training earned her many medals including competing at county level. In her spare time Tanya enjoys nothing better than running and training for her current black belt in Kickboxing. Tanya is looking forward to working within the partnership and to help raise school sport standards and encourage sport participation.
• Steve Eulenkamp, School Sport Internship

  Steve Eulenkamp, School Sport Internship

  Steve is currently undertaking a work placement year out from studying Coach Education and Sport Development at the University of Bath. Steve is interested in building closer relationships between coaches and athletes/players because of the influence that a coach can have over a player’s life and believes that having a close relationship between coach and athlete helps to get the best out of both.
  Steve’s favourite sports are hockey, cricket and F1. He plays hockey and cricket and his best playing achievements were winning the HA Trophy with Guernsey HC in 2009 and playing his first ‘international’ for Guernsey (hockey) against Bermuda in 2007.
• Lianne Merrett, Advance Skills Teacher (Primary PE)

  Lianne Merrett, Advance Skills Teacher (Primary PE)

  Lianne started the role of PE Advanced Skills teacher (AST) in April 2011. She teaches at Merton Park Primary School 4 days a week and is the school’s PE and ICT co-ordinator. Lianne graduated from Newcastle University with a BA Combined Studies degree and in 2004 went on to complete a PGCE at Roehampton University.
  As Merton's AST, Lianne supports the School Sport Partnership by delivering training sessions for NQTs, PLTs and the sports coaches to help raise the standards of PE in schools. In addition, Lianne goes into Merton schools to help teachers with the planning and delivery of PE lessons. Lianne is enjoying working with the Partnership and enjoys running sports clubs and training up sports teams within her own school.
  Lianne played lots of sport at school and now enjoys going to the gym and running. Her greatest achievement is running 3 half marathons.