Mr Marc-Antony Eysele has been appointed the new Director of Sport at King Edward’s Witley. Mr Eysele joins King Edwards from Ryde School with Upper Chine, an independent boarding and day school for children 11-18 on the Isle of Wight, where he was a Housemaster and Teacher of Sport, Teacher of Science and Head of Hockey.
Mr Eysele grew up in South Africa and came to the UK at the age of 17, when he joined the Sixth Form at Lord Wandsworth College, Surrey. Always a keen sportsman, he studied Sports and Exercise Science at Loughborough University where he gained a BSc Hons. After a brief period when he considered playing cricket professionally, he went on to take a Level 3 Personal Training qualification before working in a private fitness studio.
Mr Eysele later returned to Lord Wandsworth after successfully applying for a Teaching Assistant role and it was at this point that he realised his interest in teaching / coaching sport. He secured a position at Ryde School with Upper Chine, where he completed his IPGCE teaching qualification and has worked there for the last four years.
The post at King Edward’s not only represents an opportunity to achieve his ambition of becoming a Director of Sport, it also provides the chance to return to the county where he grew up and work at at the very school that featured so heavily on his sports fixture list during his stint in the Sixth Form at Lord Wandsworth College.
Commenting on his new position, Mr Eysele says, “The facilities at King Edward’s are superb and easily match those of many of the top independent schools in the country. I’d like to see King Edward’s become more renowned for its clear sporting prowess and to become a sporting hub, a real centre of excellence for sport in Surrey. The School has already demonstrated its ability to compete at a national level having recently won the English Schools’ Football Association’s Premier League Under 16s Small Schools’ Cup and there is definitely the potential for King Edward’s to achieve similar success in other sports disciplines. As well as improving the standard of sport and providing a pathway for progression for talented pupils, I will also be reviewing the training and development opportunities for teaching staff to ensure a professional sporting culture emanates throughout the School”.
Mr Eysele, who is recently married, will be living at the School with his wife, who has been appointed Assistant House Mistress at King Edward’s. They will be joined by their nine month old yellow Labrador Milo.