Wolverhampton Judo Club are one of GBR’s long standing clubs that have produced high quality athletes and coaches over the last 50 years, this has included the national team coach and numerous successful international athletes, some of which have medalled at the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Mac Abbotts and Dave Brookes enjoyed many years of competitive success through the products of their coaching and guidance in all competitive levels for athletes such as Elvis Gordon, Dennis Stewart, Kerrith Brown, Densign White, John Swatman, Owen Pinnock, Fitzroy Davies, Craig Fallon, Gemma Howell, Dan Powell, Bill Kelly (coach), Kevin O’Reilly (coach) and many more…………

The club has undergone a number of changes in the last 20 years which has seen them move premises from Heath Town to Wednesfield and rebuild subsequent generations of athletes and coaches to take them forward. Mac and Dave have remained as active members in the club during this transition period with Mac as Chair and CWO, Dave as Vice Chair and continuing to coach on the mat, Bill and Kevin have been leading the coaching for some time now. Bill Kelly and Kevin O’Reilly have been and are still supporting the athletes on their travels.

As part of the recent efforts to improve the club, Kevin O’Reilly has acted as the driving force behind numerous financial initiatives, charity functions and now ensuring that the club could revalidate its Club Mark award therefore showing that the club is run under a good quality system. Kevin is one of the club’s travelling matside coaches and therefore sees the fruits of the clubs work in competitive action, however, Kevin has acted as the main contributor to the Club Mark accreditation which the club hopes will help them grow again through having this quality stamp. Well done to Kevin and the rest of the club!

Clubmark is Sport England’s national accreditation scheme for high quality community sports clubs and stands for higher standards of welfare, equity, coaching and management. There are now more than 14,000 Clubmark accredited clubs across over 50 different sports.

Keith Merrick (Local Development Officer) who has been a club member since the early 90’s and works with the club on some initiatives said that “the club is working hard to provide an improved overall experience for the club members which will hopefully result in future development of membership and further competitive success.”