Winners announced at 20th anniversary of UK Coaching Awards

Tuesday 5th December 2017

The winners of the 2017 UK Coaching Awards have been announced.

The showpiece annual event is seen as one of the most prestigious within the coaching community and was held at The Honourable Artillery Company, City of London on Thursday 30 November.

This year’s event marked the 20th anniversary of the UK Coaching Awards, which saw an expert judging panel choose their winners from an impressive list of finalists, following a record number of nominations.

Awards for Coaches:

The following categories have been awarded to coaches:

Community Coach of the Year
Marcellus Baz (Boxing) (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)

Children’s Coach of the Year – Supported by sportscotland
David Walsh (Multi) (Heanor, Derbyshire)

Disability Coach of the Year
Anna Jackson (Wheelchair Basketball) (Chester, Cheshire)

Heather Crouch Young Coach of the YearSupported by Youth Sport Trust
Samuel Tuck (Rowing) (East Molesey, Surrey)

Lifetime Achievement Award
John White (Swimming) (Margate, Kent)
Malcolm Brown (Triathlon) (Leeds, Yorkshire)

Talent Development Coach of the Year
David Unsworth (Football) (Liverpool, Merseyside)

High Performance Coach of the Year
British Athletics Relay Team Coaches (Benke Blomkvist; Christian Malcom; Stephen Maguire)

The Coaching Chain
Stuart Hogg (Rugby Union)
John Hogg; Mark Wright; John Johnstone; Bryan Easson; Iain Monaghan; Sean Lineen; Gregor Townsend

Awards in Support of Coaches

The following categories have been awarded in support of coaches:

Coaching Culture of the Year
British Weight Lifting
England Rugby

Coach Developer of the Year
Rus Smith (StreetGames) (Stourbridge, West Midlands)

Coaching Intervention of the Year – Supported by Sport England
Fitmums and Friends (Athletics) (Yorkshire)

Mark Gannon, Chief Executive Officer of UK Coaching said:

“The 20th Anniversary of the Awards has seen some of the best examples of coaching throughout the nation celebrated. We would like to thank all of the finalists for their incredible services to coaching.

“We saw a record number of finalists nominated and our independent judging panel deliberated long and hard to acknowledge the people and organisations that dedicated their time to the development of others through coaching.

“All of our winners at this year’s awards – coaches, organisations, and coach developers – have all worked extremely hard to ensure that their participants receive the best possible experience of sport and physical activity. They are all a credit to coaching and we are delighted to have been able to recognise their fantastic work.”

The principle of the Awards is to recognise the contribution coaches make in transforming lives across the UK.

Access photos from the event

Did you attend the event? Access photos of yourself and the winners from our gallery. The download code is SCA1117. Don’t forget to continue sharing your photos and thoughts on the event using #UKCoachingAwards.