A sports scientist who started her journey in football as a four-year-old at Bedale JFC has started work at Middlesbrough FC.
Rhiannah McCourt, from Fearby, near Masham, left Bedale High School in 2018 and went on to study A-Levels at Harrogate Grammar School.
In July 2024, she graduated from the University of Leeds with a first-class honours degree in sport and exercise sciences (Ind).
She is currently studying for her MSc in strength and conditioning for performance and rehabilitation at Teesside University.
In 2023, Hannah Dingley became the first woman to manage a professional men’s football team in England when she was appointed caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, a role she held for only 13 days.
Rhiannah is now undertaking a paid internship at Middlesbrough FC as a graduate sports scientist with the men’s first team and also works as a strength and conditioning coach at Leeds United Emerging Talent Centre, having previously undergone work placements at Southampton FC and Sheffield Wednesday FC.
Rhiannah will be working with Frankie Hunter, head of fitness at Middlesbrough FC.
Rhiannah started playing football with Bedale Junior Football Club at the age of four and progressed through the ages to U16.
The club helped and supported Rhiannah attain her Level 1 Coaching and Referee qualification. Rhiannah then became a coach at Bedale Juniors and refereed many matches.
In May 2022, Rhiannah spent six weeks at The University of Pittsburgh, USA, on a Strength and Conditioning Internship working with Division 1 Collegiate Athletes.
Following on from this, Rhiannah then spent the year at Southampton Football Club on a Sport Science work placement, working closely with the schoolboy ages groups and the Women’s First Team.
In August 2023, she went to South Africa to help teach children to ride and maintain bikes as well as partaking in some cultural exchange at an African University.
Children in the Eshowe region, around 90 minutes from Leeds’ twin city Durban, often walk an hour or more on dangerous roads to get to school and the team from Leeds Trinity University created a bike hub teaching children to cycle in rural areas so they can get to school safely and quickly.
Rhiannah’s passion for swimming started at a young age, alongside her love for football.
She later transitioned into Lifesaving Sport, the only sport with humanitarian origins, and travelled a three-hour round trip twice, if not three times a week, to Blyth to train with their squad.
Throughout her lifesaving career, Rhiannah competed at two World Championships, achieving fifth place in the Line Throw Event at the 2018 Champs in the Youth Interclub Category.
Additionally, she was selected for the 2019 GBR Lifesaving Squad and spent several years as part of the RLSS UK Performance Programme.
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