npower Football League brings Peter Shilton to Asfordby Hill

npower Football League has announced that it will be bringing Leicester City and England football star Peter Shilton to Asfordby Hill School to deliver an inspirational coaching session for pupils.

Local lad, Shilton, who started his career with the Foxes, made his first team appearance at the age of just 16 and played more than 280 times at Filbert Street, narrowly missing out on the FA Cup winner's medal in 1969, before going on to win The Charity Shield and the Division Two Championship the following season. Shilton to this day still remains England's highest ever capped player, donning the Three Lion's shirt 125 times. His return to Leicester is part of npower and The Football League's Trust new community initiative Home Team Heroes.

The npower Football League put the power in the hands of Leicester City fans to determine which of three available community programmes they wanted implemented before the end of the season. With votes cast, counted and verified, 'Coaching' has been revealed as the project supporters felt would most benefit Leicester.

Shilton, who was awarded an MBE shortly followed by an OBE for his outstanding services to the game, will help deliver the Coaching programme, alongside fully qualified Leicester City community coaches.

The course will offer local 4-6 year olds the chance to attend a fun five week course at the football club, a local community centre or their school, where the children will learn basic sporting skills such as agility, balance, co-ordination, rolling and dribbling.

The fundamental coaching course is designed to improve the general dexterity and co-ordination of 4 - 6 year olds, providing an opportunity for children to make friends, develop core physical and mental skills, and build a lasting, positive attitude towards active lifestyles.

"I think this is a great scheme to get young children not only interested in football, but to build their social skills and enjoy themselves," said Shilton.

"It's great to be back at the club where it all started for me. They gave me so much, so it's nice to be able to give something back to this wonderful place. Football is more than just a sport, and can bring people together and in ways like nothing else."

The npower Football League is a place where dreams are achieved and heroes are created. With heroics happening on the pitch, npower is committed to replicating these actions away from the terraces with its community initiative Home Team Heroes and The Football League Trust.

Clare McDougall, head of community and education at npower, said: "Football clubs are an integral part of a town and hugely important to the local community. The fundamental idea at the heart of Home Team Heroes is to give something back to the community through football and we hope the kids will really enjoy themselves, as well as learning some new skills they can put to good use in the future. It's amazing to see the support for community initiatives like this and the power sport has to bring people together. "

Home Team Heroes is a £2million community initiative which will run over the course of npower's three year sponsorship with The Football League, helping each of the 72 clubs in England and Wales.

About npower:
npower is one of the top energy suppliers to the UK business market, serving over 238,000 small to medium sized enterprise sites and around 17,000 industrial and commercial customers, with over 100,000 sites.

npower Industrial and Commercial Markets is an award-winning business energy supplier. In 2010 it was named 'The Consumer Supplier of the Year' award at The Energy Event and was also awarded 'Energy Supplier of the Year' at the inaugural Energy 'Buying & Supplying Excellence' Awards. Both awards were voted for by business customers.

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