High school adds two more sporting students to Hall of Fame

Two sporting stars from Whitworth Community High School have been inducted onto the school’s Hall of Fame wall.

When Ruby Aughey got the chance to go tubing being dragged through the water on a rope behind a boat she found she loved it and now she is a British National Waterski Champion at just 11-years-old.

Know-no-fear Ruby, from Whitworth, took up the sport at nine and now the student from Whitworth Community High School wants to compete for Team GB on a world stage.

She said: “My stepdad’s best friend has a boat and he took me out tubing. I then watched him waterski and do slalom and it was the best thing ever; now I do it myself and I love it.”

Ruby has just earned a photograph and citation on the Whitworth Community High School sporting Hall of Fame next to the Sports Hall.

She waterskis every weekend and once during the week.

Ruby said: “The worst thing is falling in when the water is freezing cold. When the wind gets up and if you are doing a 360 – a complete spin – and you fall in, it is always a sore one as you face plant in the water; it is horrible.

“But I get up and just carry on and then do it all again.”

Ruby competed for her British title at Hazelwood Ski World in Lincolnshire, which she also uses for training, along with Cowm Reservoir in Whitworth.

She said: “My best trick is a 180 wake. This is where you go wide of the boat, so away from the wake, and then turn 180 and move back in but when you hit the boat’s wake the water is choppy and you do not have the same tension on your rope.

“I also do slalom, but have only just started. This season is now almost complete and I am only changing from my dry summer suit into my wet suit.”

 

 

Jacob Calvert has also just been added to the wall. The Year 9 student has been playing football as a goalkeeper since he was six and has been invited by Manchester City to join their Select Squad, on the development pathway that could lead to a career in football.

Jacob has been coached as a goalkeeper by James Wittingham, from JW22, since he first took up the sport and in the last few years, by Dominic Cheetham from Goalie Club.

If it hadn’t been for their guidance and training, he wouldn't have made it to City Select.

Jacob, 13, from Bacup, said: “I began playing for Shawclough, and then Rossendale United, but Covid meant I couldn’t play, so my dad would help me practise in my back garden by kicking balls at me so I kept my skills up. “I returned to playing properly in 2022 when I was in Year 7 and I then started for a new Shawclough team. I played a few matches sharing game time with another keeper and then joined a new team, Barrowford Celtic who needed a keeper.”

When the Manchester City Select Squad was playing Oldham, Jacob was asked to join them, after a local Man City scout had seen videos of him playing. He said: “There were three goalies and the match was at The Ethiad Campus; I didn’t know what was going on, it was all a bit crazy.

“It ended up 5-5 and I got some catches in and two balls also got past me.” In January 2024 he joined the Select Squad and continues to train and play as much as possible for Manchester City, grassroots, school and district teams with the hope of achieving the skills to get into first team academy football.

The 36 photographs currently on the school’s hall of fame celebrate achievements of current students and alumni from dancers to a stock car driver, boxers to trampolinists.

Head of PE at Whitworth Mr Cawley said: “This wall gives them the kudos they deserve and the recognition and it presents something that others can also aspire to achieve.”