OLYMPIC beach volleyball star Zara Dampney is coming to Richard Huish College on Friday (September 20) to launch the start of an eight-week volleyball course.

The Team GB elite athlete will be sharing her experiences and enthusiasm for the sport as part of Sport England’s Sportivate initiative, a Lottery funded legacy project following the games.

Beach volleyball caused quite a buzz in Horse Guards’ Parade during the London 2012 Olympics and Zara hopes she can use the inspiring memories of the Games to help encourage and motivate students to stay in sport one year on.

Sportivate aims to help 14 to 25-year-olds to get involved in sports from judo and tennis to wakeboarding and parkour through free or discounted six-to-eight week sports coaching courses.

Zara is one of Sport England’s Sporting Champions team of current and retired elite athletes who are keen to share their experiences and enthusiasm for sport.

She will be helping to run the session taking place in The Dome, showing her skills to students and talking about the sport.

Zara said: "I’m really looking forward to visiting this exciting Sportivate volleyball project at Richard Huish College, in Taunton.

"The opportunity to support such community sports programmes is a real privilege for me.

"I’m hopeful that by using the Olympic and Paralympic legacy from London 2012 and through my experiences in competing at elite level, I can motivate all the young people in attendance to sustain their sports participation."

At London 2012, Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin competed in the Beach Volleyball group stages and also played in the ‘lucky loser’ round for a place in the knockout stage of the beach volleyball.

Principal John Abbott said: "We are delighted to have Zara coming to Richard Huish College to share her passion for sport following the inspirational Olympic Games last year and to hear about her experiences as a Team GB elite athlete.

“We have a strong sporting ethos at Huish with our students consistently competing and winning at National levels but we also promote our Active Huish program that encourages everyone to get involved in sport just for fun and for the health and social benefits."