HAVING been educated at Oakham School near Leicester, Roger Nicholson made the step up from student to teacher.

Under his tutelage, a British Lion in Tom Croft, an England captain in Stuart Broad and another international rugby player in Alex Goode went on to bigger and better things.

In 2004 he joined the Brighton College ranks, and it’s a time Roger remembers fondly.

He was one of the last appointments made by former headteacher Anthony Seldon and would work alongside John Pope, who has made a lasting impression on the school’s sporting landscape having taught there for 37 years.

Another one of his colleagues at the beginning was John Halsall, who went on to become England’s fielding coach, and it would be cricket where Nicholson would find his first notable pupils in the form of three girls.

In Sarah Taylor, Holly Colgin and Laura Marsh – he had three future England cricket stars on his books and with his marriage to another cricket international Claire Connor he would inadvertently change the shape of the sport.

Sat in the garden with his wife, Roger suggested the women’s game should incorporate the Ashes points system used today, and it was that conversation that would prove the catalyst in making the change.

The women’s game has since gone professional, but he was not focussed on the superstars, his dream was to drive participation at the school.

Current headteacher Richard Cairns joined in the January and they went about setting out a five year plan.

“We decided the time that we wanted to prioritise certain elements of sport and we wanted to get as many kids as possible out playing," Roger said.

“As a director of sport, you can never sit there and say it’s all about your top performers.

“You get more top performers the wider the base is.”

And the base has more than doubled.

Back in the early 2000s, about 150 pupils from Brighton College represented the school in various sports either for the A, B or C team.

Now, more than 300 don the famous badge, with some fifth teams being rolled out, and the school has gone from being competitive in four or five sports to eight or nine.

It’s this base that’s given him countless victories and accolades, but it comes at a price.

“I’ve been lucky enough to win two national titles in rugby and made three other finals which we lost,” he said.

“There are moments when you get home on a Saturday night and your team has lost by a point and you’re absolutely gutted.

“It affects your weekend.

“Then there are Saturdays when you win by a point and it’s brilliant.

“That’s the beauty of the job.”

However, it’s not the winning that’s important for Roger, it’s the small victories that come with teaching PE.

Finding that unearthed talent is the golden nugget, and it’s something that happened as recently as last week.

“There’s a boy in athletics,” he said.

“I asked him to come over to have a go at the javelin.

“He came over and threw it 30m, and he’d never thrown one before.

“Part of the job is recognising talent and nurturing it so back in the rugby season there were a couple of boys down in the C team who we brought up to the Bs and then the As and then seeing the excitement in their eyes when they were selected for the A team was fantastic

“It’s a deep down smile you get from within as a PE teacher.”

The flip side of that is the job’s biggest frustration – when a youngster does not realise his or her potential.

There were too many to name, but he said: “They leave school and they could’ve made sport their career – they could’ve made something of it.

“But that’s their choice.

“If they don’t want to, they don’t want to.

“You do draw a sigh when you see a kid and they all come with a natural glee in their eye for sport, but as they get older other things tend to take more importance in their lives.

“They’re under different pressures and the challenge of being a youngster these days is difficult.

“I think sport is a decent outlet for many of them.”

Why is it that so many talented young sportsmen and women fall by the wayside?

“If you can nail this," he said.

“Then you could bottle this answer and make a lot of money.

“I think there’s an element of over-success when they’re too young and too much pressure from parents.

“I think the idea of too much success early on means they stop trying and they stop attempting new things.

“They become attainment based rather than effort-based.

“They become scared of failure.

“When they’re young and they lose a couple of games or get dropped, it’s not such a bad thing as long as they come back and they work hard.

“I’ve never minded as a director of sport, or head of PE or a coach if we lose.

“I don’t have a problem with it.

“I also will say to certain teams that if they win by 30 points, that’s not really a measure of success, because if they play badly and win by 30 it isn’t always a good thing.

“There’s an adage that the result is not always a true measure of success.

“You can lose a game having played brilliantly well, but you lose and that’s that.

“You move on, dust yourself down and on Monday you go again and that’s the beauty of sport.

“I think we forget that, even at the top level of the game, there’s too much of a focus on winning.

“It’s ok to lose.”

Roger's job is all-encompassing, so downtime is a rare thing with fixtures all weekend long.

It’s something he’s mocked for within the department, with colleagues poking fun.

“I’d describe it as attention to detail,” said Roger.

“You’ve got to have that in my position and you’ve got to care.

“I’m a worrier – I wake up at 3am worrying about if I’ve done things or how I can improve other things and I’ve learned through my life not to worry about being a worrier.

“I just accept it means I care and that I need to keep challenging myself.

“I’ve worn myself out a little bit by that, but I’ve learned not to be afraid of that.”

The little time he does have to relax, he likes to do so by running or watching Norwegian crime thrillers – an hour of reading headlines, as he described.

As the academic year rolls into the home straight, he will begin preparation for a new life in Dubai as director of sport at Jumeirah English Speaking School.

With no bank account, no car and no place to live, when he heads out in August, it will be a change of pace, not least the 45C heat.

As well as the 1,000 secondary school children, he will have two primary schools under his remit, and is looking forward to implementing all he can from his Brighton College days to the system in the United Arab Emirates.

Many have questioned his decision to leave one of the country’s most prestigious sport schools, but Roger said: “If I don’t make the move now, I’m never going to.

“I’m 46 now, and although I could quite happily teach here for another 20 years, it’s a good gig here, this is the time to move.

“It’s been a progressive thing.

“I mean when did Alex Ferguson decide to leave Manchester United?

“I leave the department in a healthy state, but to carry on sitting there for another 20 years is not good for the department, so it probably needs a bit of fresh blood and I’m not getting any younger.

“There’s a lot of new ideas and it’s important that at some point you’ve got to move on.”

Eleven years down the line, the relationship the school has across the county has come on leaps and bounds, and that has not always been the case.

“Sport-wise I think we get on better with our colleagues from across Sussex,” he said.

“When I first got here there was a lot of hostility towards us, I’d like to think that now we’re seen as part of it.

“I like the fact there are lots of boys and girls involved in sport and that both nationally and locally we’re competitive.

“I think it’s great within the county you’ve got Brighton with rugby, Hurst with cricket, Ardingly are doing well with the football, Eastbourne with girls' hockey and Warden Park with girls' cricket.

“Sussex is doing really well and I’m pleased Brighton College is part of that.

“I hope that continues.

“Sport has to be an integral part of what kids do and I go back to the resilience I talked about earlier and not fearing to fail.

“I feel there’s a generation of kids here with parents and teachers that’s a bit of a snowflake generation – we’re trying to support them too much.

“I think sport, within a controlled environment, gives you that.

“They’re under so much pressure academically, I think sport can give them an outlet. “

When he looks back at his time at Brighton College, as well as being thankful for a great sport team and some talented youngsters – not least sprinter Toby Harries – the thing that he is most proud of is what he leaves.

He said: “The fact that the boys and girls on a regular basis turn out and are excited about playing for the school and they don’t always win every weekend, but they’re always out there getting the benefits of playing sport.

“Yes, there’s been a lot of success, but there’s been just as much failure.

“To see students grow up through the school – that’s 10 generations of kids - and I hope they’ve all enjoyed their sport here.”