Press Release
Six Shetland nominations for Coaching Awards
The Junior Inter County Netball Team - coached by Kirsti Leask and Vicky Henderson
Photo: Kevin Jones
Shetland’s sport coaches have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to sport in the first ever sportscotland Highlands and Islands Regional Coaching Awards.
No fewer than six coaches from Shetland were nominated for the Awards, the highest number from any island group. Nominations were made by fellow coaches, parents and the Active Schools Team.
The awards are split into five categories; Young Persons Coach, Participation Coach, Development Coach, Performance Coach and Young Coach of the Year.
There were two Shetland nominations in the Young Persons Coach category; Glenn Gilfillan for his commitment to youth football and Lorraine Gifford for her excellent work in swimming. Lorraine also picked up a nomination in the Development Coach category.
Billy Mycock’s development work in squash earned a nomination in the Participation Coach category with Daniel Meadow’s outstanding contribution to rugby earning him a nomination for Young Coach of the Year.
The success seen in netball in Shetland over the past year was recognised in two categories with Kirsti Leask nominated for Performance Coach and Vicki Henderson nominated in the Development Coach category.
sportscotland Regional Coaching Manager, Jan Stander was delighted with the overall response in this, the first year of the awards. He said, “We had over 30 nominations across Highlands and Islands and the response from Shetland highlights the quality of coaches working across all levels of sport in the isles”.
Unfortunately it was a case of not to be on this occasion for nominees from Shetland as Highland based coached swept the board for this year’s awards. Highlands and Islands Young Coach of the Year went to Frazer Grant for his work in basketball, with Frazer going on to win the sportscotland National Award.
Active Schools Manager James Johnston said:
“This is further recognition of the quality and commitment of local coaches volunteering their time for sport in Shetland. It is pleasing to see coaches from Shetland figuring in the shortlist for regional accolades such as this and I believe Shetland has the coaching talent to go one step further next year. We expect to see even more nominations from Shetland in 2012”.
Active Schools are recruiting coaches to their Sports Coaching and Volunteering Programme. Anyone interested should contact the Active Schools team on 01595 74 4006 or email sportandleisure@shetland.gov.uk