The individuals, groups and clubs highlighted below have all been chosen as a winner of a ‘Lockdown Legend of Sport and Physical Activity’ award.
After much deliberation and discussion by the Executive Committee of the Scarborough & District Sports Council, we thought it was best to recognise and showcase all the nominees for the fantastic work and efforts they have done for the local community during the pandemic. We will be in touch soon with all the deserving winners via e-mail to arrange for you to receive your commemorative memento, which has been kindly supplied by Everyone Active.
Well done to everyone – you are all true Lockdown Legends!
Hayley Fanshaw
Haley is an active member of the community, who has recently developed her fitness to promote a healthier wellbeing for herself and the community.
Her main focus and vision is to ensure everyone despite their age, are engaged and have a good understanding of following a healthy active lifestyle. Haley offers a variety of classes to all ages and abilities and is a positive role model to the community.
Hayley has been nominated for her commitment, persistence and ambition even during the difficulties of CV-19. She has continued to keep the community moving with her professional online classes, similar to when she is providing PT.
Compass Health & Fitness
Julia and Craig, along with the team at Compass Health & Fitness have been amazing during lockdown. They have helped people with exercise ideas, 1-2-1 sessions as well as helping with nutrition and mental support and have worked closely with local authorities to ensure compliance with CV-19 rules and restrictions. They have also gone above and beyond to motivate and keep the positivity going between both new and original members within the lockdown group to ensure people don’t lose sight of fitness goals.
Whilst being extremely supportive, the gym has given so much back to its members; lending kit out to those who needed it, providing online classes, suspending memberships, online challenges with daily support, responding to messages and helping with the physical and mental health of all involved, providing free 1-2-1 sessions, charity work etc.
John Green
John has been nominated for his communication, engagement and motivation of the local cricket community during lockdown. He has kept people actively engaged throughout lockdown, with cricket challenges, quizzes and cricket forums on Zoom. He organised an enormous number of matches when restrictions were eased and he also shaved his head to raise funds for NHS charities.
Laura Daniel
Laura has been nominated by a client who she assisted with during lockdown by creating a personal plan for the gym, whilst considering my needs and illnesses. She has been extremely supportive throughout the time of exercising from home. Always willing to give advice and how to improve performance and posture. She is very encouraging and ensures you want to continue your journey, and not quit!
Sniper Fitness
The Sniper team have gone above and beyond to inspire and motivate their members during lockdown. They have provided free workouts to communities, fundraising for school children and allowing members to hire equipment to be able to continue with their workouts at home.
During the first lockdown they started their Facebook page which featured recorded workouts, as well as live studio workouts. Members were inspired and wanted to join in by submitting their ‘Sniper Selfie’ to the page. Small group training sessions also took place when they could as well as online. The support they provide is truly outstanding – members genuinely feel like they are part of the Sniper Family.
Yorkshire Coast Football Academy
Tony and Mark have provided inspirational exercise sessions for all 420 pupils at Newby and Scalby Primary School throughout the pandemic. They have adapted their work continually to meet the ever-changing risk assessments and numbers of pupils. Their energy levels and ability to motivate every single child to remain active have been consistent throughout despite the challenges that we have all faced in school. Every child has looked forward to their sessions and they have made a considerable difference to the physical and mental health of everyone.
Heather King
Heather has been offering free yoga sessions online throughout lockdown, and has received many messages of gratitude. She is a mother of a 2 year old and has a full time job, managing to provide joy, light and positivity to others throughout lockdown. She has also found time to film yogging sessions (a fusion of yoga and jogging) and during the run up to Christmas she did a yoga for advent series which involved a live session every evening – a great way to keep people participating!
Bryden Simpson
Bryden has selflessly created a whole new sports initiative to encourage residents of Filey and the surrounding villages to regularly participate in non-competitive sporting activities. ‘Active Filey’, born just before the March lockdown has encompassed sports such as sea swimming, running, road cycling, mountain biking, walking and yoga, all free and all respecting the relevant social distancing / CV-19 rules. A series of duathlons (Run / Cycle) took place during the first lockdown, with a phenomenal take up of participants, who each received a memento upon completion. During the last lockdown activities were still taking place, albeit in solitary and posted to Active Filey social platforms, such as Facebook and Strava, encouraging and motivating other members to keep active.
The initiative now has 495 members on Facebook and is still growing and the best thing Active Filey is free and accessible to all. Bryden has definitely brought the community of Filey together especially through these tough times and also great friendships have been formed.
Mic Bates
Mic’s online classes during lockdown were a lifesaver, he was very encouraging to everyone, kept a lot of people going mentally as well as physically. He set up an online fitness group that has helped many people keep physically and mentally active, he also set up online fitness classes for the local schools. Mic has done live classes 6 days a week, since March lockdown and has managed to keep them fresh to keep people engaged and motivated. ‘Mic Bates Fitness at home’ was also launched as the pandemic continued – an online coaching group based on Facebook.
Roots of Yggdrasil
At the first lockdown Roots of Yggdrasil decided that it was even more important to ensure that everyone had access to exercises. To this end they decided to post daily exercises videos on Facebook showing a range of exercises to keep people mobile and help improve their posture to prevent back pain.
With the help of a grant from NYCC and a local marketing and printing company (Jim Grieve, Scarborough Digital) who volunteered his own time to help us, they were able to produce and publish a small booklet containing 13 fully illustrated chair based exercises with full teaching points. We were able to donate these to local groups such as Scarboccia, Scarborough DAG, Scarborough Disabled Swimming Group, Whitby DAG, GP practices and nursing homes. This brochure was designed to help vulnerable members of the community who were having to self isolate to keep mobile through exercise as well as help their mental health. They continued and are continuing our efforts throughout further lockdowns and are still producing daily exercise videos that can be found on their Facebook page.
The Sixsmith Family
The Sixsmith family have held Facebook Live Shrimps Rugby sessions on a Sunday morning to keep members engaged, active and interested in rugby.
The sessions are led by Charlotte Sixsmith one of the volunteer coaches at Scarborough RUFC, and are specifically designed to engage the very youngest players in physical activity to keep them active, healthy and interested for when club rugby sessions can restart. Each week the children Poppy, Harvey, and Seb run through a routine led by Charlotte and families and players can join live on Facebook or watch it again later at any time to suit themselves. Not seeing their friends, team mates and coaches is having a negative effect on the physical and mental health of young people during this extended lockdown. These sessions have had a positive impact in helping to keep the young players and their families connected to sports activities, their clubs and team mates.
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Scarborough Hockey Club
During the pandemic Scarborough Hockey Club were only able to facilitate 10 weeks, of on the pitch sessions (September – December) for local Men, Women and Children.
These much-needed wellbeing activities have been accessed 1252 times collectively by players, coaches, and umpires. Investing in new equipment and PPE to make all sessions safe for all involved. Before the return to the pitch Scarborough Hockey Club funded 20 online coaching courses to help share the demand on volunteers, who might have to stay home and self-isolate. The first weekend of fixtures saw 4 adult teams play against nearest friends and rivals York. Scarborough had 2 Umpires, pass their match assessments, qualifying them to officiate any fixture in the county.
Over the summer when team sport was not possible, the club partnered with local gym Chrisfit in Scarborough to provide COVID safe group fitness sessions, as well as setting weekly fitness challenges for members to do at home. Also, funded food donations for The Rainbow Centre Scarborough, to help with food parcels for those in need over Christmas. Due to the towns boxing day events cancelled; including the charity collection of a mile of pennies along the foreshore. Scarborough’s Hockey players emptied their piggy banks and lined them up by the pitch fulfilling a “side-line of pennies” donated to the Fisherman & Fireman’s Fund.
Chris Makin
Despite the struggles that most small businesses have faced over the last year Chris has continually impressed with his commitment to young children keeping active.
Chrisfit has been delivering his online free workouts for children twice a week via Zoom. Chris and his team have delivered free of charge fitness work outs for children twice a week whilst the children haven’t been at school and can’t train at sports clubs with their friends. It’s given the children an opportunity to stay active, see their friends on the screen and be engaged with a new focus. This has not only the benefit of keeping the children active but also supporting their mental health by letting them see friends online but to feel good about themselves. To see someone continually put effort and energy into this which is a service they do not get financial revenue from, great work and an awesome idea to give back to the children at what has been no doubt a very strange time for them.
ScarBoccia
The club have kept virtually engaged with members whilst trying to develop new initiatives during the lockdown period. They have set weekly challenges for all members and have also been showcased as an example of good practice by England Boccia for the work they have done.
Whitby Running Club
Since the start of lockdown and the suspension of any club activity, the club has done as much as possible to keep members engaged, active and motivated. The club set up a Facebook members group that meant people could keep in touch with others, post photos and videos of runs, arrange to meet for a run if permitted and also provide some much needed motivation. The club set up virtual challenges for members to complete a distance as a collective either by walking, running or cycling. These included Paris to Whitby, Whitby Coliseum to the Coliseum in Rome, Whitby Yacht Club to Monaco Yacht Club, etc. Social events via Zoom were also introduced including ‘Coffee and Catch Up’, a weekly quiz including fancy dress evenings; all designed to keep members engaged, motivated and mentally well.
Mick Thompson
Mick Thompson is a well-known local runner and stalwart of Scarborough Athletic Club. He is also the club’s Press Officer and, each year, he promotes England Athletics Run & Talk initiative within the club. The initiative is held in partnership with mental health charity, Mind, and helps to promote positive mental health through running.
Due to the pandemic, this could not take place so instead, 81-year-old Mick decided to complete a challenge of running 500 miles during the last 50 days of Winter, ending on March 19th 2021 to raise funds for the Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Branch of the Mind Charity; for which the current total is £810. This was also to celebrate what will be hopefully the beginning of the end of a most challenging time for many with mental illness. The last 50 days included several weeks of adverse weather for outdoor activity, with incessant rain, record freezing temperatures, some snow, and during the final 7 days, very strong winds, On the last day of winter and the 500-mile Challenge, Mick was joined by Melanie Padgham, the Yorkshire Cost Race Director who accompanied Mick for the last 6 miles of the 500-mile target with just 7 hours to spare.
East Coast Tigers Cheerleading
Since the very first lockdown the volunteer coaches at East Coast Tiger have been working hard to keep our athletes engaged, so that they can have some normality throughout the pandemic. In the first lockdown the club used YouTube to upload weekly Home Training videos with tasks and games, with many members participating throughout the programme. For lockdowns 2 & 3 the club focused on weekly Zoom sessions instead, with all of the athletes logging on every single week. The coaches came up with fun ways to keep the athletes fitness up, including games, quizzes and YouTube workouts. The club are still working towards competition even though they will be virtual. All of the athletes, athletes, parents and coaches at East Coast Tigers are described as ‘one big family’ and have definitely helped one another throughout the pandemic.
Olivia Hall
Olivia has been such a positive role model towards her grassroots football team during the pandemic.
She has taken the time to plan, create and deliver weekly Zoom sessions with her team to help positively influence the player’s wellbeing and mental attitude. Olivia has planned a number of fun activities for her team over Zoom such as football drills, football exercises, interactive games and quizzes. She really has had such a positive impact on her team providing these opportunities for them to still see and communicate with each other. Olivia is such a positive an enthusiastic person and she really has done a brilliant job at providing a positive platform for her team during this time of uncertainty. She has had a positive benefit on her players during this lockdown and lots of people appreciate the time and effort she has put into creating fun and engaging sessions to distract children from this time of uncertainty.
Amanda Ing
Amanda took over as Chair of the Board of Directors and Finance director at Whitby Golf Club last January. The club was on the point of closure and members were very negative about the future. By co-ordinating with her other Board members she has turned things around. For the first time in a number of years the club actually showed they were viable and finances were in the black. Through her leadership and with the help of the Ladies Captain a grant was applied for converting the old pro shop into a virtual swing studio for coaching and virtual golf. The club has achieved Safegolf status and has signed up to Women in Golf Charter. All club systems have been brought up to the 21st century new Wifi and new PSI terminal for input of scores so we can play golf safely in the CV-19 climate.
Members increased by 112 last year through the work of the board and staff. For the first time the club has a new junior Academy and that is thriving. Marketing has gone onto social media and been brought up to date. Amanda has been the leading light with all this; her drive and determination has seen a new positive feeling about the club, which without her leadership and foresight might never have happened. She has united the Board to work closely together for a common aim success and love for the club and the game of golf.
Scarborough Gymnastics Academy
The SGA coaching team has kept the gymnasts at the club motivated and engaged throughout the pandemic, with a fantastic weekly program delivered to gymnasts aged 1 upwards. In the last lockdown the coaches prepared and delivered over 250 sessions to the clubs amazing gymnasts. The amount of praise and positive feedback from the gymnasts and parents has been immense. The sessions have contributed towards the physical and mental well-being of all members and helped the gymnasts to get through the difficult period and prepared them for their return to gymnastics. The coaches are so excited to get back to what they love doing best.
S6F PE Students
The PE students at S6F wanted to do something positive during the pandemic, give themselves a physical challenge and also raise some funds for the Gallows Close Play Centre in Scarborough in the process
The original plan was to row the English Channel, cycle a leg of the Tour De Yorkshire and run the London Marathon. However the students went the extra mile (quite literally); by rowing the English Channel in 1hr 48.06 minutes, cycling a 184km stage of the Tour De Yorkshire and then running the London, Boston, Berlin and Paris Marathons. An amazing effort from a group of young people in support of a local charity.