2007 in focus: Nancy Ovens Bursary

Andrew Brown, SkillsActive - 21/12/2007

The Bursary, sponsored and administrated by SkillsActive and awarded by the Nancy Ovens Trust, is aimed at paid or volunteer coaches and leaders who work with children and young people in the active leisure and learning sector.

Building on the fantastic experiences of the first year, eight people from across the sector were given the opportunity to increase their skills through a truly innovative range of placements and experiences. With eight winners being selected, the original £2500 bursary wasn’t going to stretch far, so was increased by a further £1000 by SkillsActive with the Nancy Ovens Trust likely to follow suit to give a total fund of £4500.  Further to this, individual support to the bursars has come from the Cary Soccer Association, English Cricket Board, England Squash, Leicestershire County Football Association and Welsh Badminton, bringing the total value of the awards to approximately £9000.

The bursary awardees and the initiatives they are undertaking to develop their skills included:

• Richard Ashby, the current Lincolnshire U-17 and U-19 squash champion, who has expanded his squash coaching programme with Lincolnshire primary schools; 
• Norman Greenhouse, a voluntary coach with Welsh Badminton specialising in coaching disabled athletes, who will gain experience with the disability badminton world champion and his coach in Holland; 
• Matt Johnson, Head of Development at Reading Rockets Basketball Club, who has traveled to Davidson University, one of the top Basketball Colleges in the USA, to train with their head coach Bob McKillop – click here to read more; 
• Tom Lloyd, who runs the Soccerette football academy in Portsmouth, spent a month at the Cary Soccer Association, pioneers of women’s football development, in Chicago – click here to read more; 
• Scott Nicholls, a full time lecturer in the Sports Department at York College, has been training with and mentored by professional coaches at the Headingley Cricket Academy with a view to establishing a cricket academy at York College; 
• Andrew Osborne, Head coach of Stroud Swimming club, has been developing his coaching skills with top swimming coach Graham Bassi at the Bournemouth Dolphins club; 
• Rehanne Skinner, a women’s football coach for Leicester City Women’s FC, has been gaining football coaching experience with various men’s football teams including Everton, Hull and Sunderland, in preparation for undertaking her level 4 licence which will be part funded by Leicestershire County FA;
• Janet Warrington, Head Coach at Hoddesdon Swimming Club, spent a week shadowing top swimming coach Chris Martin at the Scottish Institute of Sport in Stirling.

In addition to this year’s recipients, last year’s bursars have been continuing their great work in the sector.  Glenn Smith, a swimming coach and development officer for Mansfield District Council, was voted Nottinghamshire Coach of the Year 2006 which was awarded at a ceremony in February this year. Fellow 2006 bursar Roger Pickering was so successful in developing links to coach in local schools that this year he quit his day job to deliver school coaching on a full time basis at a number of schools in his area.

Further information on the bursary and the recipients is available here.