Giggs' plea to kids: Put down your video games and get fit

October 18, 2013
Posted by Steven Tan | Source from Manchester Evening News
The football ace returned to Moorside High School in Swinton to launch its new £35 million building
 
United legend Ryan Giggs urged children to put down their PlayStations and start playing sports during a visit to his old school.
 
The football ace returned to Moorside High School in Swinton to launch its new £35 million building.
 
He delighted hundreds of cheering pupils by addressing them in their new assembly hall and was reunited with his old PE teachers, who hailed him as Moorside’s finest all-around sportsman.
 
The Reds ' player-coach, who grew up in Swinton and played for Deans FC and Salford Boys before signing for United, hopes the new facilities, including Sport England standard pitches, outdoor gym and BMX track, will encourage sports stars of the future.
 
He told the M.E.N: “When I was at school we had great PE teachers and pupils who loved sports.
 
“I was encouraged when I was at school and pupils should be even more encouraged with facilities like these.
 
“Today children have their PlayStations and computers but it is good to exercise.”
 
Post by RyanGiggs.cc.
 
A beaming Giggs, 39, who was presented with a framed picture of the new school, told pupils how he had watched it developing just half-a-mile away from his home.
 
He said: “When I got the letter from the governors I didn’t have to think for one second about opening this complex.
 
“I just wish we had these facilities 25-ish years ago. It’s tremendous for you to have these facilities. We have similar facilities at Manchester United and Carrington but we are reminded that even though we’ve still got great facilities we need to work hard."
 

 
Ryan’s former PE teacher and head of fifth year Robert Mason said: “In the fifth year he was already playing for United and England Boys team and he would disappear on tour with them.
 
“I knew him from his first year at Moorside and we heard that a good player was coming to the school. But it wasn’t until he got on the pitch that we realised just how special he was.
 
“He was a lad who enjoyed all sports and the only thing he didn’t play is cricket. But that’s because we didn’t have a team. If we had a darts team he would have been on it.”
 
Fellow PE teacher Sue Kirk said: “He was quiet and a gentleman. And my best memory of him was running the 400m race. The whole school stood up and gave him a standing ovation.
 
“He was like a whippet. He has always been a star to me.”
 
 
The building for 896 pupils, and an adjoining Moorside Primary School, is across the road from its previous site in East Lancashire Road, which will now become playing fields.
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