Touchdown for Wildcats new base
Members of the Highland Council’s Inverness West Ward have ‘touched-down’ at the new base for Highland Wildcats American Football team.
Councillors Alex Graham and Graham Ross met with Wildcats Development Officer Robbie Paulin and some of the players to view the new team home now based at Bught Park Stadium.
The Councillors were very impressed with how the new premises have been kitted out, and trust that the Club will benefit from the move.
The Wildcats’ Positive Life Pathways project uses American Football to engage young people in positive activities. The Club works across the whole of Inverness and the surrounding area. Their main target group is young people aged between 14 – 19 who are experiencing inequalities and are at risk of exclusion. The project attempts to help them work to change their lives in a positive way. The Wildcats also provide physical activity for younger children and volunteering, training and mentoring opportunities for adults – particularly those who are currently out of work.
The club’s former premises were located at Queens Park, off Bught Drive, and due to the works on the Inverness West Link Road required to be moved. Local Members were pleased to be able to find a new home for them at the Bught Park Stadium.
The Wildcats also received a grant of £4,500 from the Inverness Common Good Fund towards kitting out the refurbished facility provided by the Council at the Stadium.
Robbie Paulin said: “With this new, strong base we will be able to run our volunteer development programme, our pre-employability programme for young people from the most disadvantaged areas of Inverness, our building capacity in the community programme and our improving health and wellbeing programme. This will also be the base of operations for our performance level Highland Wildcats teams which have brought success to the area having retained the Scottish Championship for the last six years and last year were crowned UK champions.”
In September the Highland Wildcats defeated the Edinburgh Wolves 54-8 to win the U19 Scottish Championship in a showcase event at the Bught Stadium itself.
For more information on Highland Wildcats visit their website at: http://highlandwildcats.co.uk/ follow them on Twitter @H_Wildcats or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/highlandwildcats/