With the support of North Hertfordshire College, Lewis Ferrell, previously a star student of NHC, has signed a one-year professional contract with First Division Football Club Brentford FC.
Fintan Donohue, Principal of NHC, said: “The college has so many components, that many people find it difficult to recognise our ability to help individuals achieve their potential in both academic and occupational matters. Every so often we realise that goal with very special and gifted people like Lewis.”
The Sports, Health and Public Services Academy of NHC, which under the direction of Gordon Barr, is acknowledged as a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE), has established a special three-cornered relationship involving AVC Sports Management (who specialise in football coaching to 16-19 year olds), Brentford FC and the college. This relationship enabled Lewis’s football talents to be recognised first by AVC Sports Management and then by Brentford.
Lewis Ferrell, from Stopsley in Luton and previously a student at Putteridge High School, is acknowledged as an outstanding academic student who achieved distinction grades across all his units of study at NHC, and won the NHC Sports Academy Student of the Year award for 2008/09. His frank comments about his time at the college included these words: “NHC has great links with football which helped me to complete my dream of becoming a professional footballer. The tutors saw my abilities in ways that I didn’t, and helped me open my eyes to what I could achieve.”
Whilst Lewis is focused on succeeding as a professional footballer, his time at NHC has also provided him with a level of personal wisdom that even his tutors find exceptional; he says: “Through my training with the college, I feel I have the opportunity to progress into other fields later in my career; professional football is just the beginning to life’s journey. Thanks’ a million NHC.”