Category: Regional News

10K Coaching2020 reaches target

The Disability Sport Fife weekly sessions organised throughout the year in conjunction with Fife Sports and Leisure Trust and Fife Sports clubs are the foundations of our movement. They are the entry point for athletes who have aspirations of accessing active recreation only. Sessions are also the initial steps on the Para sport pathway that may lead to membership of a mainstream sports club or representing Fife at Scottish Championships and who knows what thereafter.

When families or significant others contact the Disability Sport Fife office, they are sent a registration form and when this is completed and returned, a face to face meeting or telephone conversation is arranged to determine the most appropriate session on the timetable. So many of our Fife representative athletes attend weekly sessions within their local communities or have attended for a short period before signing up for a mainstream club.

The Disability Sport Fife programme of sessions has been running for almost a decade. Every session is led by a DSF coach who holds appropriate coaching qualifications for the sessions they lead and this includes safeguarding and first aid. All our sessions are held in Fife Sports and Leisure Trust facilities and offer access to the FSLT Leisure Active programme and reduced prices. Most importantly sessions are located in the best leisure facilities in Fife and offer security, comfort and community engagement. DSF sessions are inclusive in ethos and practice.

It costs Disability Sport Fife between 10K and 11k to run the programme of sessions annually thanks to the partnership set up with Fife Sports and Leisure Trust. For the past three years GOGA in Fife supported by Spirit of 2012 has helped to fund the programme but the funding stopped in December 2019. As part of succession planning, GOGA in Fife and the Trustees of DSF (SCIO) set up a fund raising programme called 10KCoaching 2020 to support the costs of running DSF sessions post GOGA.

The Trustees are delighted to report that by the start of the new financial year on April 1st we had raised 9.5K and this has ensured that sessions will be funded until the end of March 2021. The Trustees of DSF (SCIO) are indebted to the following individuals and organisations for their incredible support:

STV Children’s Appeal

Trefoil

Celtic Foundation

The family of the late Craig Bernard

Specific families who donated anonymously

The Association of Fife Rotary Clubs

Donations offered to DSF speakers at clubs and organisations

Scottish Disability Sport

Thank you to everybody who has helped to fundraise for DSF throughout the year. The 10K Coaching2021 fund has now been set up to meet the costs of our programme of sessions for the period 2021/2022.

Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Samantha Gough’s Rapid Rise in Goalball

Midlothian’s Samantha Gough has only been involved with the sport of Goalball for just over a year, however during that time she has made significant strides and is viewed as a player with huge potential.

Bonnyrigg based youngster Gough became involved in the sport after being introduced at a Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) Visual Impairment Sport Engagement Day in March 2019 where she was given the opportunity to try Goalball alongside a range of other sports. It was immediately evident that she had lots of ability in the sport.

Fast forward to March 2020 and Samantha, a pupil at Lasswade High School, is now an established member of the #GoalballFamily and is seen to have the potential to represent Great Britain in the near future. During this time, Gough has demonstrated dedication, travelling long distances (often to England) to train, compete and attend development camps. In addition to playing the sport, Samantha has also gained her Goalball Leaders coaching qualification, using this to assist SDS with grassroots delivery in local schools across the East of Scotland, including Blackhall Primary School in Edinburgh where a regular session has recently been established.

In October 2019. Gough made her competitive debut (Novice Level) for a composite team in a Goalball UK (North) tournament held in Sheffield. The composite team finished 1st and Samantha finished as the highest female goal scorer with 18 strikes in 6 games. Continuing her rapid acceleration through the sport, Gough again travelled to Sheffield in January this year, participating in her first Intermediate Level Goalball UK (North) Tournament representing York. History repeated itself as Samantha again finished as the top female scorer with 15 goals in 4 games. This form would see an invitation to attend a Goalball UK Talent Camp at RNC Hereford – unfortunately cancelled due to severe flooding.

Exactly a year after initially trying the sport, Samantha was selected to attend a training camp specifically for developing Intermediate and Elite players. This camp also included a tournament which saw Samantha test herself against three players from the GB Woman’s Squad and also provided an opportunity to highlight her undoubted talent to the observing GB Woman’s Coach.

This is a remarkable rise through the sport in little over a year and demonstrates the opportunities available for local individuals should they wish to pursue a sporting pathway. To top the last 12 months off, Samantha was named as top female goal scorer at Intermediate & Beginner level for the 2019/2020 season – a remarkable achievement for a novice in the sport.

Goalball, is an exciting Paralympic, indoor 3-a-side sport of attack and defend which is played by people who are blind or partially sighted. All players are required to wear eye shades so that nobody can see anything and ensures an even playing field for all. The idea of the game is quite simply to score goals by bowling the ball along the floor, past the opposing team. The ball has a bell in it, meaning players must rely on their other senses. To find out more about the sport, please visit www.goalballuk.com.

If you are interested in becoming involved with Goalball, please contact SDS Regional Manager (East) Neal Herbert on 0131 625 4414 or neal.herbert@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Fife swim team circa late 90s – Inter Region Gala

Many thanks to Lara Ferguson for these two great photos taken at Drumchapel pool in the late 90s when Team Fife completed the swimming double by winning the Glasgow University Athletic Union Team Trophy and the BNOC Relay Cup.
The Inter Region Gala was set up in 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, as a head to head between the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was the brainchild of the late Bob Mitchell OBE, President of Scottish Disability Sport and supported by Glasgow University Athletic Union.
Participating teams included physically and visually impaired swimmers only and each swimmer was restricted to two swims. Each team had 40 competitor swims and the gala was time banded using the SDS classification system. The Inter Region Gala became one of the most popular events in the Scottish calendar of events and offered swimmers of all levels of ability to compete for their home branch of SDS.
Disability Sport Fife joined the event in 1982 and thereafter a combined team of Tayside and Grampian swimmers. The gala moved around the country and it was a sad day when the final gala was held. One of the highlights of the Inter Region Gala was that Paralympic swimmers competed in the same team as novice swimmers for team points.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

First Fife CP Athletics Squad

I came across this old 80s photo of the first Fife squad of athletes with cerebral palsy to compete in the Scottish Track and Field Championships organised by the Scottish CP sports group. At the time the sports group was part of the Scottish Council for Spastics, now appropriately renamed Capability Scotland.
The driving forces behind these championships and others were Commander Archie Cameron, Mary Aitken and Jim Thomson from SCS. They paved the way for a significant involvement of Scottish athletes with cerebral palsy to be involved in international track and field for the next three to four decades. There was early engagement with Scottish Disability Sport (SSAD at the time) and the two organisations planned and helped shape the futures of outstanding Scottish athletes/swimmers/boccia players with cerebral palsy including Colin Keay, Caroline Baird MBE, William McQueen, Maxwell McKay Gordon Robertson MBE, Jimmy Sands, Stephen Payton, Richie Collins, Keith Gardner, Pauline Latto, Anne Woffinden, Carol Johnston, Jimmy Maxwell plus many others.
From this early group of nine Fife athletes Colin Keay from Kirkcaldy and Ann Swann from Methil were selected for the Paralympic Games in New York in 1984. Each was a multi medallist in Nassau County at Hoffstra University in the very first SCS/SSAD partnership involvement in a Paralympic games. Commander Cameron was the President of the International Paralympic movement at the time, a huge honour for Scotland and the SCS. Ronald Raegan was the President of the United States and together they welcomed all of us proud Scots as members of a wonderful 1984 Team GB. Nobody appreciated at the time how important these Games would be in the development of local, national and international Para sport.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

First Fife Carpet Bowls Championships

In searching my photo archives for the next article for the Facebook page, I came across one of the oldest pictures in the 40 years plus history of Disability Sport Fife.
The photo was taken at Lynebank hospital in Dunfermline and the occasion was the first Fife Carpet Bowls Championships. Alex McLean and some of his bowler friends turned out as markers and we had entries from adult bowlers with a physical, sensory or learning disability. The photo is of the section winners and the year was 1977, almost two years after I moved to Fife to take up my post at the Fife Sports Institute.
Sadly almost all of the section winners have passed away but Pamela Mitchell and Robert McMahon who appear on this historic picture are still competing in the Fife Championships. The full list of winners was as follows:
Eilleen Fairgrieve; Robert McMahon; John McConnachie; Pamela Mitchell; David Laing; Mair Scott; Sadie Dunnigan; David Thomson. Sadie is proudly holding the Val Harley Memorial Trophy which is one of the most sought after and classic trophies in our movement. Carpet bowls is played extensively throughout Fife and in 2020 we had a full line up of juniors taking part from Fife secondary schools.
In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, Disability Sport Fife collaborated with Fife Council and Scottish Disability Sport to introduce carpet bowls to the national calendar of events. The first Championships were held at the Lochgelly Centre in Fife and next year will be the 40th anniversary year of the championships. The recognised home is now the Dundee International Sports Centre (DISC) and Dundee City Disability Sport is the key partner along with Scottish Disability Sport.
Over the years the Scottish Carpet Bowls Championships have been hosted by the Lothian, Forth Valley, Glasgow, Highland, Fife and Dundee branches of SDS. Carpet bowls offers the opportunity for bowlers to progress to indoor and outdoor bowls where further competitions exist plus of course the opportunity for mainstream club membership and all that this offers.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Fife Junior Para Swimmer Rising through the Ranks

Continuing on the theme of “Fife Futures” and the ones to watch, the focus of this article is on teenager Cameron Hemphill from Ladybank and Bell Baxter HS. Cameron is a member of Carnegie Swimming Club, having started out in DSF sessions at Cupar and Glenrothes, before moving to Cupar and District and then on to InCas. Cameron is Fife’s leading physically disabled Para swimmer living in Fife.
Throughout his career, Cameron has been tremendously well supported by all members of his family and more recently his strength and conditioning programme has been supervised by Stuart Bizzarri from the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust. Cameron was introduced to competitive swimming at the Disability Sport Fife swimming championships.
Cameron’s 6 year journey to date:
  • November 2013 First SDS Junior Swimming Championships Grangemouth
  • November 2014 Second SDS Junior Champs November Grangemouth
  • Cameron’s first classification in June 2016 = S10 SB9 SM10
  • Following classification Cameron is invited to join Scottish Squad
  • National Para-swimming Championships 2016 in Manchester
  • Move to InCAS to train under Garrie Roberts, and an increase in training intensity
  • Awarded most improved swimmer trophy at the 2017 Disability Sport Fife Annual Awards
  • Cameron with Garrie at the Scottish Open Swimming Championships in 2018 at Tollcross – Glasgow
  • Cameron competing at his first British Para Swimming International Meet 2019 at Tollcross.
In six years Cameron Hemphill has progressed brilliantly in para swimming and is currently a young ambassador with Scottish Swimming. Commitment, determination and strong family support are key to success and Cameron has it all in abundance. Disability Sport Fife is proud to have played a part in Cameron’s journey to date and recognises that this young man still has so much to offer.
These are challenging times for para swimmers without access to water but Cameron is fully committed to his home based land training and this hopefully will keep him on track until normality returns.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO ) Board of Charity Trustees

Young Fife all rounder is one to watch

The story of Owen Miller, Sam Fernando and Carter Taylor, three of Fife’s very successful T20 athletes with additional support needs is similar. Identified early on in their school careers that they were athletes with potential, the tried and tested Fife support network kicked into action.
In the case of these three athletes, Woodmill HS and Bell Baxter staff met with Disability Sport Fife, families and club representatives to action appropriate transitioning between school, DSF sessions and club coaching. For Owen, Sam and Carter the role of families can never be underestimated. The sport in each instance is athletics and local club Fife Athletic Club, with its team of inclusive coaches, has taken all three athletes to the very highest level in track athletics and road running.
Zoe MacNulty from Balwearie HS is a young all-rounder starting out on a journey that may one day lead to involvement in club activities and who knows where thereafter. Tracy Barber (nee Wiscombe) and Rebecca Lee were at one time in a similar position and went on to excel in swimming at the highest level.
Young Zoe is currently showing promise in cross country, track, swimming, badminton and unihoc and was recently selected for the Disability Sport Fife Sportshall team that retained the national team title in Grangemouth. Like the others Zoe has strong family support. Prior to school and leisure centre closures, Zoe attended the Wednesday swim improvers session at Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre that was part of the GOGA in Fife programme supported by Spirit of 2012.
DSF swim/athletics coach and Balwearie HS teacher Gabby Doig now transports Zoe and her school friends Sam and Brooke to Tuesday run, jump and throws session at Pitreavie Athletics Centre. The next stage in the journey of young Zoe is hopefully club membership and discussions are already at an early stage. Zoe is definitely a youngster to watch and her enthusiasm and involvement in physical activity, including sport, with encouragement from family, school and DSF coaches to date has been exceptional.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Lothian Disability Sport AGM & Awards

Due to the ongoing situation with Coronavirus, Lothian Disability Sport have decided to postpone our AGM for the time being. However we would still like to invite nominations for our Annual Awards which we will present at a later date.

The aim of the Annual Awards is to recognise individuals and teams who have achieved particular success or achievement in their sport over the previous 12 months.  Nominations are welcome in the following categories –

  • Young Sports Person Award
  • Senior Sports Person Award
  • Team / Club Award
  • Volunteer / Coach Award
  • Endeavour Award

Please find the award nomination form below.  Deadline for entries is Friday 29th May 2020.  Nominations can be emailed to admin@lothiandisabilitysport.co.uk.

Annual Award Nomination Form 2020

If you have any questions surrounding this information, please contact Jack Brodie on 0788 554 9173 or admin@lothiandisabilitysport.co.uk.

Tayside Regional Round-Up

The Tayside Regional Round-Up is now available with news about recent events including:

  • The hugely successful 6th Tayside Parasport Festival
  • Dundee United Community Trust goalball session
  • Regional competitions in badminton, boccia, swimming, powerchair football, sportshall athletics and many more
  • Regional Sports Awards
  • Disability Inclusion Training workshops
  • Link-up with Scottish Student Sport

You can download the Round-Up here.

If you or anyone you know has a disability and would like to get involved in sport in the Tayside Region, please contact Graeme Doig – graeme.doig@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Young Fife Para Swimmer Inspiring Others

Disability Sport Fife is immensely proud of Glenrothes High school former pupil Craig Smith. In his day he was a talented Para swimmer with a very promising career ahead. Excellent school exam results and university beckoned. Circumstances changed but work and further study then followed. One day Craig appeared back in the DSF office and volunteered to sign up for a succession of Scottish Swimming teaching and coaching awards.

Mentored on the pool deck by Lara Ferguson, Craig joined Glenrothes Amateur Swimming Club and became a very popular and successful teacher. Never one to sit around Craig was then off to Glasgow to pursue the next chapter of his young exciting life.

Craig has recently committed his time and expertise to the Scottish Disability Sport Young Start Futures team. One of Craig’s roles was to work as a member of the team and help members with the application for future programme funding. Craig’s role was to create a member’s survey that would determine how team members envisaged the programme developing if a funding application was successful.

On the back of the survey responses Craig reached out and attended meetings with SAMH and Scottish Sport Futures to determine what they could offer to the programme and also of course to seek advice. Craig collaborated with other members of the Young Start Futures team plus the programme mentors. A summary of the plans for the programme was prepared and Craig was proud to be part of the team that presented the details to members of the Big Lottery at their office in Glasgow.

Craig was also thrilled to be part of the small team from Scotland that travelled to London for the UK Coaching Awards. Craig’s role was to represent the Scottish programme as finalists in the transforming coaching award section.

At the recent Young Start Futures residential at Inverclyde, Craig was part of the Young Start Futures team that presented the ideas for the future of the programme to the rest of the Young Start group. Scott Tait from Wee Flee productions provided an excellent session on creating videos with phones. Leading on from this session, Craig met up with Scott to assist with the edit of the footage from the weekend and ensure the young person’s message comes across as intended. Robert Nesbitt of SAMH was also in attendance at the residential.

Over the years I can think of several Disability Sport Fife members who have enthusiastically offered their time and expertise for the benefit of others. Craig Smith is the most recent and we wish him continued success in his quest to support, encourage and inspire other young people with disabilities into sports coaching. Craig’s teaching/coaching journey has been impressive so far and I am sure he has much more to offer. Well done Craig, we are all so proud of you back here in Fife.

Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees