Congratulations to our very own Liz Yeadon who has has been announced as this year’s winner of the prestigious British Orienteering Coach of the Year award. Liz was presented with her award at British Orienteering’s AGM by Judith Holt, Chair of the Board of Directors.
The award is well deserved. Liz works tirelessly to give children an experience of orienteering through engaging with primary schools in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire area to deliver a series of training and competition events along with with coaches and volunteers from Sarum Orienteering Club. Events provided range from basic skills training at individual schools to competitions in local woodland areas. Not only do the children learn basic orienteering skills, they also gain immense confidence in their own abilities.
The schools programme has been so successful and enjoyed by the children that it has lead to the establishment of an annual Forest League competition involving teams from 12 local schools. Forest League events can be very challenging with as many as 160 children participating but Liz’s enthusiasm and commanding presence ensures smooth running and children go home buzzing with excitement. Winning teams go on to compete in the Wiltshire Games involving schools from across the County.
Liz puts much time and effort into encouraging school children to go on from these school-based events to take part in mainstream orienteering events. To this end she has promoted a plan for Sarum Orienteering Club to establish weekly fitness and skills training for juniors that the club hopes to roll out this summer.
Liz also works hard with club colleagues to devise and deliver Sarum’s popular monthly club training evenings. If you haven’t managed yet to join in these then check out this year’s schedule and make a note in your diary to come a long for a fun and sociable evening – we repair to a local hostelry afterwards and orienteering isn’t a conversational must.