Sport

The comprehensive and popular Football programme at Wellington Bangkok begins at Nursery level, offering our youngest learners a first experience of the sport, which is then evolved throughout the College up to Senior School.

There are two levels for players in our Wellington Football Squad, with players training within their allocated age group. There is development group and a matchday squad with the sessions tailored for the needs of individual players. Movement between the squads is encouraged and monitored to ensure those who are early in their football development have the chance for progression and that those players who are more experienced are continually challenged.

This means we are able to successfully adhere to our ‘Sport for all’ philosophy at Wellington with the added dimension of specialist preparation for our competitive teams.

As with all our core sports, there is the opportunity to play football during all three terms, be it as part of the school curriculum or as part of our extra-curricular programme, ‘Wellington Extra’.

Due to the excellent progress of our squads in the last three years and the fantastic reputation of our school, Wellington Bangkok gains access to the marquee tournaments and events across Thailand and Asia as well as there being opportunities for regular fixtures locally in Bangkok. Our outstanding football pitches and facilities mean that Wellington often hosts competitive tournaments and fixtures at School.

Swimming has quickly gained a strong reputation at Wellington Bangkok, with the appointment of former three times Olympian James Goddard as our Head of Swimming - highlighting our commitment to the sport.

Furthermore, Swimming is engrained into our curriculum with all students from Pre-Nursery to Senior School taking part in at least one swimming lesson a week, all year round, with the opportunity to have further swimming coaching as part of Enrichment and our extra-curricular programme, ‘Wellington Extra’.

From a coaching perspective, there are two levels for swimming. ‘Learn to Swim’ is aimed at our beginner swimmers not yet ready for the competition squads and looking to develop their technique and water confidence. Our Swim Team Squad has the opportunity to train in the water up to six times per week, (in addition to land-based fitness work), with Mr Goddard taking time to ensure and understand what each individual competitor’s goals should be.

Our aquatics centre is the envy of schools across Bangkok with two magnificent swimming pools, both short and long course, with electronic timing touch pads for our swimmers to use. Furthermore, we have added to our equipment in our fitness facility for more specific training. Our swimming squad enters all the prestigious events in Thailand and wider into Asia through the FOBISIA network of schools.

Our highly experienced Head of Basketball, David Bobalik had a successful playing career at collegiate level in the USA before going on to coach the Thailand National Women’s Team amongst a number of other notable coaching roles.  Due to David’s experience of the collegiate system and his coaching expertise, he has helped students gain basketball scholarships at Colleges in North America.

With an elite team of coaches at his disposal, most of them National players themselves, the basketball programme is of the highest quality.

The basketball programme is available all year round both as part of the curriculum in Lent Term and via our extra-curricular programme, ‘Wellington Extra’.

There are two levels for players in our Wellington Basketball Squad. A development group and a matchday squad ensure sessions are tailored for the needs of these individual players. Movement between the squads will be encouraged and monitored. This all means we continue with our ‘Sport for all’ philosophy at Wellington Bangkok, with the added dimension of specialist preparation for our competitive teams.

Our dedicated Basketball coaches lead our teams and ensure we enter major events and tournaments across Asia, whilst preparing our gameday squads for these events. Due to our outstanding facilities, we often host local Basketball tournaments at School and make our courts available to local basketball community clubs to which we have an association with.

Wellington College is rapidly developing a reputation as a leading golfing school in Thailand.

In 2020/21, golfing professional and a PGA trained coach, Michael Antona was hired to develop our students both physically, strategically and in the psychological aspects of the game.  

At Wellington, there are three levels of provision for Golf. SNAG is aimed at beginner players, using large headed clubs and tennis balls to develop the fundamentals of the game.  Players can graduate from this into the Development Squad, which is aimed at players who can strike the ball, but are not quite ready for the golf course. The third tier is our Competition Squad, who are ready to play on the golf course and represent School in local events. Players at all levels have access to our start of the art Swing Room with swing analysis software and virtual golf courses.  The Competition Squad also have access to the Unico Golf Course.

Furthermore, both the Development and Competition Squads will have supervised practice with Michael, small group lessons in the Swing Room, and the opportunity for private 1-1 lessons with Michael at their convenience. We have a strong relationships with all the major tournament organisers, entering ISGT events and Faldo Series tournaments held in Asia as well as supporting our golfers at the World Junior Golf Championships in San Diego where Wellington golfers have competed with distinction. 

At Wellington Bangkok, there are three levels of provision for Tennis. Foundation Tennis is aimed at beginner players, using large, soft balls and smaller sized courts to develop the fundamentals of the game.  Players can graduate from this into the Development Squad, which is aimed at players who can rally on full sized courts, but who are not quite ready for competition. The third tier is our Competition Squad, who are ready to play and represent the School in local events.

Furthermore, both the Development and Competition Squads have supervised practice with our tennis coaches, small group lessons, and the opportunity for private 1-1 lessons with at their convenience. We have a strong relationships with all the major tournament organisers, entering local and national events.

In line with The Wellington College (UK), we have a strong commitment to the development of Cricket here in Wellington Bangkok. Our Director of Sport is a former County cricketer and Level 2 coach who has worked with County squads in the UK.

As a new sport to Wellington College Bangkok, Cricket will be introduced through the softball version of the sport, where the fundamentals of batting, bowling and fielding can be established. Once these core skills are in place, competitive opportunity will take the form of pairs cricket in fixtures and festival events. Pairs cricket is an excellent introduction to the sport, again using a softer ball with players experiencing equal opportunity in all three areas of the sport. As the sport develops at the College, hard ball cricket will be introduced, making use of the planned facility development that incorporates a cricket ground in Senior School.