Long-serving Spartans youth players have been presented with medals to mark 10 years of service to the club.
The group belong to the current Under-17s set-up, having first joined not long after starting primary school.
Les Atkinson is chairman of the youth section and said: “We want to make people feel welcome and create a safe place for them to play their football and enjoy themselves here. It’s the ethos of the club which we work on and testimony to that is the length of time people stay at the club.
“There is a real family feel to the club, a community spirit to it, and that helps keep players with us as they want to be part of something special.
“We are always pleased to develop players so they can move to bigger clubs but often they come back to us if things don’t work out for whatever reason.”
Spartans take on Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the quarter-final of the League Cup later this month and Les, who is also manager of the Under-20 Development Squad, added: “We have a visible pathway now which the youngsters can see. At least half a dozen of the first team players have come through the youth section to the U20 development squad and into the top team.
“Now we are in the SPFL, the players have a real target to aim for. The success of the first team filters down to the development team and then through the youth section and creates a real feel-good factor.
“But we have always been about more than just football and winning trophies. A key part of our success is doing a lot outwith the football, helping the local community.”
The youngsters were presented with the medals at half-time of a recent league match at Ainslie Park.
Photo shows back row (l-r): Les Atkinson (Spartans FC Youth Chairman), Stuart Gray (coach development officer), Daniel Weir, Cameron Findlay, Joe Barry, Josh Smith, Ola Benson, Michael Kiddie, Ford Mills, Tony Lewis (U17s coach), Paul Woods (U17s coach).Front row (l-r): Hugo Boyle, Charlie Cusiter, Preston Kennedy, Joe Woods, Ben Lewis, Finlay McNally, Chris Mill.
The coaches of GB Paralympian Kadeena Cox MBE have won The Coaching Chain award and will receive their accolade at this year’s UK Coaching Awards on Tuesday 7 December.
Further award winners on the night include the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Richard Brickley and Mussabini Medallists – coaches who supported their athletes to gold medals at this year’s Tokyo Games.
Kadeena Cox’s coaching chain has been recognised for their tremendous impact on her journey to success. The award signifies and celebrates the importance of progressive person-centred coaching and the continuous dedicated support and time invested in athletes throughout their careers.
The coaches behind the growth and development of multi-medallist Cox, who is currently starring in ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ are Tom Hodgkinson, Joe McDonnell, Jon Norfolk MBE, Brian Scobie, Sue Bowles, John Westerman and Nathan Wells.
Leeds-born Kadeena’s journey into athletics started when her school hockey coach, Sue Bowles, suggested she tried sprinting after noticing her greatest asset was her speed. After success on the track with athletics coaches John Westerman, Brian Scobie and strength and conditioning coach, Nathan Wells, Cox was diagnosed with the lifelong condition of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Just two years after her diagnosis, Paralympic Head Coach for GB Cycling Jon Norfolk MBE supported Cox to achieve an incredible feat when she became the first British Paralympian in 32 years to win gold medals in different sports at a single Games at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
With the help of sprints coach, Joe McDonnell and British Cycling’s Paralympic Programme coach Tom Hodgkinson, Cox followed this success at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, retaining her C4-5 time trial gold medal and adding further gold in the mixed team sprint C1–5.
Discussing Cox’s achievements, her school hockey coach, Sue Bowles said: “Kadeena is a huge role model to young and old that no matter what obstacles come to you in life, you can still achieve your goals with determination and positivity.
“Kadeena – I cannot tell you how proud I am of you. You totally deserve everything you have achieved and I feel privileged to have played a small part in your incredible journey.”
Tom Hodgkinson, her cycling coach added: “Medals define the champion to the public. However, the great champions are defined by not only what they win but how they take people with them, which Kadeena does more often than anyone else I work with.
“Kadeena has the highest performance behaviours and expectations of her team and her performance. This level is met with her own personal behaviours which make you want to do more for Kadeena, with her unwavering care to check in with her team outside of the sessions that everyone is OK personally, looking after her family, gifting presents to my twins on their birthdays and Christmas, and when times are tough the ability to keep perspective beyond the now and into the future whilst keeping a smile on her face.”
The Coaching Chain category has become one of the highlights of the UK Coaching Awards. Recent winners have included the coaches behind Three Lions superstar Marcus Rashford, Cricket World Cup winner Ben Stokes, Olympic sailing gold medallist Hannah Mills, Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, Scotland rugby union full-back Stuart Hogg and Olympic hockey gold medallist Kate Richardson-Walsh.
The UK Coaching Awards showcases the diverse work of coaches, projects and organisations, making a huge difference to the health and happiness of the nation – especially against the backdrop of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Along with Cox’s coaching chain to receive accolades on the night will include the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Richard Brickley.
Richard is to be recognised for his outstanding service to participants with disabilities having worked for over 40 years to give disabled people the best possible experience in sport and physical activity.
His dedication to creating a culture of inclusion within sport led him to become the inaugural chair of the UK Coaching Learning and Leadership Group, which was formed in 2007 acting as an advisory group to help embed inclusive practices throughout coaching across the UK.
Reflecting on his award, Richard said: “I am thrilled to receive the UK Coaching Lifetime Achievement Award but at the same time recognise that there are so many others who could equally claim the right to be here.
“Being able to influence the physical activity behaviours of so many participants with physical, sensory, or learning disabilities of all levels of ability over so many years is undoubtedly high up on the list of proudest moments.
“As a member of the Scottish Disability Sport education and coaching tutor team, to be involved in so many projects and programmes that have changed lives – it fills me with enormous satisfaction and pride.”
Coaches of gold medallists at the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, will receive a special accolade of the Mussabini Medal – named after Scipio Africanus Mussabini (Sam), widely recognised as a pioneer of modern sports coaching.
Between the 1908 and 1928 Games, Sam coached athletes to 11 Olympic medals, including five Golds. The tradition of awarding medals in Sam’s name dates back to the very start of the UK Coaching Awards.
