2020 liveArgyll Volunteer Sports Awards

The LiveArgyll Volunteer Sports Awards, run annually in partnership with sportscotland, aim to celebrate and reward the success and achievements of coaches and volunteers in Argyll and Bute school and community sports clubs. Nominations in 2020 were open to both volunteer sport coaches and club volunteers with non-coaching roles. In Argyll and Bute these volunteers put in hours of their time and are crucial to the running of our clubs and providing sport to our communities.

Between May and August we received nominations from across Argyll and Bute in the following categories,

VOLUNTEER COACH	NON-COACHING VOLUNTEER
Young person’s coach of the year (coach of under 18s)	Lifetime volunteer achievement
Coach of the year	Volunteer of the year
Young coach of the year (25 years and under)	Young volunteer of the year (25 years and under)

We want to thank every single one of the coaches and volunteers nominated for all the hard work and time they dedicate to thier sport and clubs.

Nominations for volunteer coaches	Nominations for club volunteers
Julie Clark, Dunoon Grammar School	Lynn Thomson, G84 Netball Club
Stewart Maule, Rhu Amateurs Football Club	Steven Groom, North Argyll Cycling Club
Colin MacNirven, Oban Badminton Club	Moray Boyd, jogscotland Oban
William Humphries, Oban Norsemen	Walter Spiers, Oban & Lorn RFC
Anne MacGregor, Loch Lomond hockey club	Alan Liddel, Bute Shinty Club
Brian Collings, Bogelha Bowling Club	Dave Hayes, Bute Community Cycling
Dougie Whyte, Bogelha Bowling Club	Orla MacLennan, Tobermory High School
Iain Cunningham, Bogelha Bowling Club	Lily Hargreaves, Tobermory High School

 

The 2020 Winners!

Volunteer Coach of the Year – Anne MacGregor of Loch Lomond hockey club in Helensburgh.

“Anne has worked tirelessly as a coach engaging with young and old keeping abreast of new changes rules and regulations. She has taken the club from strength to strength.”

“The club had been discussing over the years that they felt Anne should be recognised for all of her hard work and dedication that she has given us as a club and now this is our opportunity to repay this back and show her how much we respect, love and appreciate everything she has done for us and for hockey within the local area. Anne gives up all of her time behind the scenes organising training plans, skills and drills and puts them into practice at training. She has never missed a training session nor any weekend games. In fact Anne selfishly gave up her own desire to play for the sake of the club because we had young goalkeepers coming through and it was important that they trained and played so she put her own needs aside. The club feel Anne truly deserves this award as she has never been recognised for all of those years she has given to our club and all of sacrifices she has made to bring sport to the local area”

Volunteer Young Person’s Coach of the Year – Stuart Maule of Rhu Amateurs Football Club

“Stewart has worked selflessly volunteering his time for a number of years now, developing football in the local community. Stewart was instrumental in setting up opportunities for girls’ football at the local Primary school he works and also introducing football clubs for younger pupils. Stewart has created opportunities for many pupils to experience safe and fun football activities and has been successful in promoting strong links between the school, local clubs and wider community. Stewart has also been instrumental with turning around and supporting local adult football club Rhu Amateurs in moving back towards the thriving club it once was. Stewart along with other dedicated volunteers have put endless hours with player engagement, development and community engagement.”

Volunteer Young Coach of the Year – William Humphries, Oban Norseman American Football Club

“William has worked tirelessly to promote the game of American Football within the Oban & Lorn area over the past few years. The impact of Williams work has provided young people in Oban with another choice of sport which is not widely available throughout Scotland. Without his determination the American Football club would simply not exist. His attitude towards the club has attracted some new coaches and volunteers allowing the club to offer more provision and allow the setup to be more sustainable. William never misses a session and has been known to continue sessions with very little numbers in some horrendous west coast weather!”

Club Volunteer Awards

Volunteer of the Year – Stephen Groom, North Argyll Cycling Club

“Steven has inspired more people to take up cycling for its physical and mental health benefits and has gone out of his way to support individuals to take up the sport and to join in club social rides and even participate in large cycling events such as the Loch Ness Etape and Oban Sportive. He does it because he loves cycling and wants to share his passion with others. Without Steven the local cycling club would not be so successful as he has helped to significantly increase the membership of the group particularly by organising Tuesday night social rides and winter spin classes.”

Young Volunteer of the Year – Joint winners Lily Hargreaves and Orla MacLennan from Tobermory High School and Isle of Mull Netball Club

“Lily & Orla have gone above and beyond, giving up their lunchtimes and after-school time on a twice weekly basis to run netball sessions for peers and youngsters in a volunteer capacity. In a small High School with 150 pupils, this is no easy task to achieve the level of skill required to attend games and to keep enthusiasm for the sport up, but the girls have worked tirelessly to do so. Their commitment to the junior, intermediate and senior teams have resulted in success at competitions and events and has had such a positive impact on pupils in this small island school. As a result more young females have been taking part in sport in the school and new members have been inspired to join.”

Lifetime Volunteer Award – Alan Liddel, Bute Shinty Club

“Alan has been a part of the Shinty club for around 26 years. He is the club secretary, but also carries out repairs on the club house, cleans the and prepares the bar and changing rooms along with his wife, keeps a regular and up to date profile on the club facebook and twitter, manages function bookings for the clubhouse ensuring regular income for the club, is the main club contact, runs the club lottery and is a key member of the Rothesay community sport hub.

Alan cares hugely for his club and wider community and this has been demonstrated in the lengths he goes to ensure good club governance and ensuring the club is accredited with their governing body, applying for grants such as the CalMac grant to help retain young people on the island providing jobs through the scheme and the Shinty club. He is always promoting the sports, both men’s and women’s and has shown huge support of the new women’s teams. During COVID Alan kept the club’s social media up to date supporting the members through facebook to keep each other active and connected. He organised using the club house for storing food parcels for the council and the club mini bus to deliver food parcels (and he delivered some of them too).”