The winner of the Scottish ClubSport Service to Sport award, sponsored by Forsyths is Kirsty Mackay. The award was presented by Caithness Sports Council to recognise Kirsty`s long standing commitment and efforts towards community and club sport.
This years recipient of the Scottish ClubSport Service to Sport award, sponsored by Forsyths is Kirsty Mackay.
Extract from the awards presentation:
Kirsty has been involved with Thurso Amateur Swimming Club in a wide range of roles over the past 15 years including committee member, secretary, lifeguard and competition timekeeper but it is her commitment and dedication to our swimmers as a coach and teacher that Kirsty has really excelled.
Kirsty started out helping with our Stroke Development squad which is the introductory level for swimmers coming into the club. This accommodates 50+ swimmers and is where we develop their very basic swimming skills across all 4 strokes with the aim of improving ability, confidence and their form in the water and prepare the swimmers for the step up into our competitive squads and competition swimming.
The age groups in this squad can be from 5 years old and above and in order to keep the children keen and wanting to progress the training has to be done in a fun and engaging manner and Kirsty has managed this with an unwavering enthusiasm.
Of course, Kirsty couldn’t manage all of this on her own and has a team of current and former swimmers volunteering to come along and help her along with one or two other coaches. Kirsty encourages all the support coaches and mentors them to be able to deliver this coaching in a consistent, friendly and professional manner.
Whilst Kirsty has kept this role on since getting involved in the club, she was also keen to get involved with the swimmers in our competition squads and when the opportunity arose, she volunteered to also take on the first of our competition squads which was D squad. This involved taking the teaching to another level and teaching race skills as well as honing strokes to ensure they were fully compliant with FINA rules. She took this in her stride and gradually worked up through C & B squads where the swimmers further develop and improve.
Unfortunately, during the COVID lockdown, our head coach Andy Foster, very sadly, passed away suddenly and this left a huge hole in the club to fill. Without any hesitation, Kirsty stepped up and volunteered to take on the Head Coach role as well as the coach for our top team of swimmers – A Squad.
During the long COVID lockdown period, Kirsty along with Shirley Bain, co-ordinated a wide range of activities and online exercises for our swimmers to undertake while they couldn’t get in the water and despite the difficult circumstances, they did this with an infectious enthusiasm which kept all of our senior squad swimmers fully engaged in the club which was a huge credit to them all.
Kirsty has held this role ever since and has done a fantastic job with all the swimmers. The club is currently seeing its team of swimmers break significant numbers of club and meet records and also seeing several of our swimmers perform at the highest level and regularly competing in finals and winning medals at District and National Level meets. We have had four swimmers reach National Junior Academy level and at the recent North District Open Championships, our swimmers took an unprecedented 4 titles back to Thurso.
These achievements take a huge amount of effort from our swimmers and it simply wouldn’t be possible without a similar level of effort and enthusiasm from Kirsty as their head coach.
Our top swimmers train seven times a week and on six days with only Monday off. Kirsty is there with them on poolside at all of these sessions and on the one day off (Monday) she still goes and leads our Stroke Development squads.
So, Kirsty is on poolside with our swimmers for 15 hours per week and when you factor in session planning, etc that would rise to around 20 hours per week that Kirsty commits to the club and our swimmers. This does not include competitions. Kirsty arranges time off from work and from family life to also go and support our swimmers at the range of competitions they regularly compete in. This is typically whole weekends away however Scottish National Age Groups is a full week of competition that Kirsty gives up her time to support.
Swimming is known for its huge demands on athletes and coaches with many hours training every week and all the early morning training sessions that are required. In order to be able to deliver this, the vast majority of clubs will have paid coaches as this is the only feasible way of getting folkto commit the required amount of time to the swimmers and sport. At Thurso we are so fortunate to have Kirsty who does all of this on a completely voluntary basis. She does not ask for nor expect any kind of payment for all the work she puts in to the club, she does it purely for the love of the sport and for the reward of seeing her fantastic team of swimmers achieve all their goals
and I believe that Kirsty should be properly recognised within the sporting community for an extraordinary level of support and commitment to sport.
I believe that Kirsty would be a very deserving winner of the Caithness Services to Sport Award for 2024 and her along with our swimmers will continue to be a fantastic example to coaches and volunteers in all sports of what can be achieved with hard work, commitment and enthusiasm in our chosen sports.
Highlife Highland
Message from Kirsty’s Employer, Steve Walsh, Chief Executive, Highlife Highland
“We are extremely proud of you, Kirsty. This award is deserved recognition for the contribution you are making towards your local community – giving up your time voluntarily for an activity that I know you are passionate about; on top of the remarkable work you do as our Leisure Manager at Thurso Leisure Centre. On behalf of High Life Highland – congratulations.”
