Athletics: Lorna is top kids' coach

Nov 9 2012 by Jack Walsh, Kilmarnock Standard

Kilmarnock Harrier Lorna Sloan won the children’s coach of the year title at the Scottish Athletics awards.

Lorna, who has been a children’s coach for nearly 11 years now, was shocked to pick up the award.

The mum-of-two coaches the children in general athletics such as long and high jump.

Upon asking her advice on being a good coach, the 44-year-old said: “The most important thing is making it fun.”

Lorna got into coaching when her daughter joined the Harriers, aged eight.

Starting off as a parent helper, the super fit triathlete enjoyed it so much and began to take coaching courses with Scottish Athletics describing the experience as “very rewarding.”

The club was shortlisted for awards in four different categories at the Scottish Athletics Awards last Saturday.

The other three nominations were: Impact club of the year; Partnership of the year with East Ayrshire Athletics and Gillian Park for volunteer of the year.

Gillian narrowly missed out on the award, making it in to the top three.

She has volunteered at the Harriers for two years doing all kinds of things,from taking minutes at committee meetings to organising buses for competitions.

Gillian said: “I was really surprised to make it to the top three, because I didn’t even know I’d been nominated!”

She encourages more people to get involved helping with the club.

Gillian added: “The club is run by volunteers; if we didn’t have the volunteers to run the club, the kids wouldn’t have Kilmarnock Harriers.”