Arrabella Goodwill

Sports Award

Age:

17

Biography

Hello, I'm Arrabella. As of September 2023, I began studying for my A-levels while training as an Elite Performance Athlete for England Handball at Loughborough College. I haven't been playing handball for as long as my teammates, some playing for over 5 years, whilst I was fully introduced to the sport around a year ago.

In the early stages of 2022 I was in desperation to fall in love with a sport that fitted me, instead of just doing it because my friends were. I was never really able to commit to any sort of physical activity due to the fact I would quickly lose interest if I didn't feel continuously engaged by it, this meant I had done every sport you would commonly think of, even figure skating.

I was later told of a local handball coach coming into school to run some sessions and that suddenly provoked the enthusiasm I had at age 13 when I learnt about it in PE and after that session I was invited into the club, Olympia Cannock. Through that one season I played in both U16 and U19 leagues, strongly and quickly developing into a decent player and was noticed by coaches from other teams, including Loughborough.

I felt like I had finally achieved something I was proud of after being invited into the EPA at Loughborough, where I now live independently with my team mates, training twice a day whilst maintaining my education. After reading other athletes profiles, JHMT has made me realise that things like this don't just come around because of luck, it takes hard work and dedication to achieve your goals. With the help of JHMT, the burden of funding becomes lighter and I can now focus on both the sport I love and completing my A-levels with top grades.