Wednesday 4 May 2022 Lawrance Hunter, PE teacher and footballing coach at The Grammar School at Leeds, has recently been joined on the sidelines by his father, former top flite club and England coach, Martin Hunter. Lawrance, inspired by his father, a professional coach and a former teacher, throughout his childhood, has been teacher of PE at GSAL for 4 years and in a role reversal, has the role as head of football with specific responsibility for GSAL’s first XI team. Martin, who coaches GSAL’s 2nd XI whilst supporting Lawrance with the 1st XI and under 16s teams, has over three decades of experience working with some of the top teams in England including Bradford City, Stoke, Norwich and Watford. Martin was also the technical director at Southampton and coached the U16 England youth team squad. Tom, Year 13 student and captain of GSAL’s 1st XI team, said, “It is a great privilege to have been coached by Martin Hunter. It is evident in his training sessions that he has been involved in the professional game at the highest level. The drills are demanding physically, whilst also challenging the brain to think under pressure, mirroring game situations. Martin also makes the drills incredibly easy to understand, which may be surprising considering his history of working with the best in the game, including Theo Walcott and Adam Lallana.” The duo, together with recently appointed Whole School Director of Sport, Lorcan O’Brien, are also instrumental in the growth of girls’ football at the school which is going from strength to strength with the introduction of after-school soccer clubs for both girls and boys for every year group in Senior School. In addition, the Leeds United Foundation selected GSAL as the location for one of their Development Centres which aims to increase participation of females aged 7 to 15 in football. “We are delighted that Martin Hunter has joined the GSAL coaching team and that so many of our students and fellow coaches benefit from his wealth of experience,” said Lorcan O’Brien. Pictured – Lawrance Hunter and his father, Martin. General Senior School Sixth Form News Sports Community
