Sports volunteering scooped me up when I was low
Kenroy Keenan joined the Cumbria Young Volunteers in Sport Programme in 2005. This is how he describes his experience.
I am currently at university and my future ambitions are to become a PE teacher. I was first approached by a teacher at college about sports volunteering, at the time I was feeling down and I really could not imagine myself doing anything like that. I also felt that I did not have enough time because there were not enough hours in the week due to my college and sport obligations (football and basketball). After giving it some thought I decided to take a trip to a volunteering session because I felt that it might be a good teaching experience and hopefully improve my coaching abilities. I also felt that it would keep my mind occupied thus allowing me to feel better.
In the very first session I met children from diverse backgrounds and some physical and mental challenges. They were all very eager to learn, listening to my advice and successfully putting it into practice. In time I found myself going twice a week.
This in turn lifted my spirits making me feel better in myself as a person because I felt I was doing something constructive in giving something back to the community and inspiring others. Giving them motivation to realise and fulfil their potential through sport. I realised that sport could become a medium to teach children about aspects of everyday life, so I decided to incorporate advice from outside of sport into sport.
The more I volunteered and coached, the more I gained a great feeling of self achievement whilst improving my interpersonal and social skills, thus improving my coaching abilities. Some time later I heard about a sport volunteering scheme that gave such rewards as certificates and sports clothing and accessories for volunteering hours achieved. I went to the Cumbria Sport conference and got myself on the scheme. This opened a gateway to coach a wide range of sport and gave me stronger incentive to pursue with volunteering.
This fitted in perfectly with what I was already doing, the only difference being I was gaining qualifications as proof of relevant experience to contribute towards future employment. My experience, knowledge of sport, coaching and understanding children improved vastly with the wide range of experience I was receiving through volunteering.
My achievements at that point got me selected to attend a seven day national conference at Loughborough University. Only two people were selected from my area (Barrow-in-Furness) and I was lucky enough to be one of them. The conference was designed to further improve coaching abilities and gain qualifications, e.g. National Governing Body awards, in various sports.
Six hundred volunteers from across the country attended the seven day conference. I was selected along with another three volunteers to coach English sports in America (Maine). I immediately knew this would be a once in a lifetime experience hopefully improving my coaching abilities.
When I was in America I picked up on some advances that Americans had made on sport. I took the best parts of these techniques, skills and tactics and adopted them into my own coaching sessions. Sports volunteering has helped me strive forward and through these achievements I have received the Chairman’s Award and the Excellence of Cumbria Award.
Sports volunteering scooped me up when I was low and has vastly improved my coaching abilities. After my Step into Sport volunteering course is complete I feel I will continue to volunteer because I personally feel there are many benefits for both the people I coach and for me to gain.
