By William Moncrieff, Communications Officer
Rachael Page started playing boccia around 10 years ago, through one of Scottish Disability Sport’s (SDS’s) member branches, Disability Sport – Fife. She started playing boccia as a means to meet new people, play a new sport and experience the benefits that come with getting physically active. Rachael has cerebral palsy which affects all four of her limbs and so boccia provided the ideal opportunity for achieving the above.
It wasn’t long though until Rachael realised that she wanted to play boccia in a competitive environment: “I have wanted to play boccia competitively since I was a wee girl when I was still at high school. I absolutely love my boccia,” she said.
Alongside playing weekly in Glenrothes, Rachael has been selected to train alongside the Tayside regional team. This has resulted in her being coached by some of the best available coaches, such as Darren and Sam Thomson. Rachael remarked on how this has positively impacted her, “They’ve been brilliant, they really have. It’s good as it is showing me loads of things, for example how to throw the balls with different techniques.”
Overall, Rachael feels like this training has helped her, commenting that, “Joining the Tayside regional squad has helped me a lot.
“Playing boccia makes me feel happy. I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.”
One of Rachael’s favorite elements of the game is the social aspect.
“I enjoy it and it’s a good way of socialising and making friends with new people,” Rachael said. This aspect of the sport has been heightened recently when attending a SDS event. “I went to a women and girls event one month ago and I made a friend with a young lady called Marina who plays boccia in Annan,” she said.
Rachael went on to comment: “It was really good because we got to meet loads of different people from adults to young children. It was also nice just seeing the different ways of playing boccia, I think it is amazing.”
The impact of role models is something that Rachael has started to notice recently.
Rachael told SDS that: “My goals are to follow in the footsteps of Kayleigh Brown.”
She believes that Kayleigh is a fantastic ambassador for the sport. “I think Kayleigh is a great role model because she has a great personality and is a great player.”
Along with having her own role models, Rachael feels strongly about the importance of female role models to inspire the next generation of women and girls, commenting: “I think it’s important to have more female role models in boccia because there aren’t many females that compete in boccia and I think that it would be great to see more females play competitively in boccia as well.”
Rachael has learnt first-hand how boccia can help people to overcome barriers. “You can never say no to anyone from boccia. It’s amazing what people can do, it really is.”
Rachael has become extremely grateful for all of her experiences; from training weekly and regionally to taking part in events and making friends.
“A lot of these things are things I didn’t think I would do and I am really grateful for the opportunities that I have had.”
If you like the sound of some of the experiences that Rachael has had, and you would be interested in trying out boccia, contact your Regional Development Manager to find out what opportunitis are available in your region.
Alternatively, you can reach out to SDS’s Boccia Development Officer on: jonathan.kennedy@scottishdisabilitysport.com to find out what opportunities there are to take part in the sport as a player, volunteer, coach or official.
Make sure to stay up to date on all opportunities throughout Scotland, by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website.
You must be logged in to post a comment.