Sports Coach UK Community Sports Coach of the Year 2007

London, 12 December

Sarah is voted Coach of the Year!!

Last Wednesday (12 December 2007) saw the SportsCoach UK 10TH Anniversary Award Ceremony, held at the Dorchester Hotel in London. As it was the tenth anniversary, the patron of the charity, HRH Princess Anne, was in attendance to personally hand out the awards to the winners.

The evening started with a champagne reception, where award winners, had the opportunity to meet with the assembled board members, who has previously deliberated over the nominations for each award and decided the winning coaches. Sarah was met by Bev Smith and Heather Crouch, board members and formidable coaches, both of whom offered their congratulations to Sarah. Following this, HRH arrived and had personal conversations with the assembled reception.

The award ceremony itself saw around a meal for 400 people followed by the Awards. Sarah attended with her mother, Sandra Moon, also a dedicated coach to rhythmic gymnastics, along with Joy Morton, (Education Manager at Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership), who nominated Sarah, and Leanne Dingle (English Gymnastics SW Development officer) who also backed the nomination from the governing body.

Joy nominated Sarah for the range and quality of work she carries out in her professional capacity at SASP, and her voluntary work at City of Bath Rhythmic Gymnastics Club. Sarah works as a community coach, coaching gymnastics to primary school children, delivering CPD to teachers and staff, working with recreational gymnasts in sports centres, as well as creating links and supporting local gymnastics clubs. As head coach at City of Bath Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, the girls she coaches currently hold 18 national titles between them. This includes the current British Junior Champion, British Under 13 Champion, British Under 12 Ball Champion, and National Duet and Trios Champions. As well as this, she works closely with the national staff of British Gymnastics, and in 2006 was selected as a coach to travel to Moscow for the European Championships.

However it doesn’t end there. At the club Sarah supports the other coaches, and general development of the club. Under her guidance, the club, coaches and gymnasts have been incredibly successful at all levels of competition this year, picking up numerous medals at every championships they have attended!

A short film sequence was shown of Sarah coaching her gymnasts, along with some interview footage. Steve Rider, who was the compere for the evening, then asked Sarah to collect her award from HRH Princess Anne. Sarah's acceptance speech included..

“ It is such an honour to be amongst such prestigious company tonight, in the coaches that have won awards. This is fantastic not just for me, but also for rhythmic gymnastics, for Somerset, as well as my family and the club… THANK YOU!”

Link to SportsCoachUK website.