Disability Sport Fife is immensely proud of Glenrothes High school former pupil Craig Smith. In his day he was a talented Para swimmer with a very promising career ahead. Excellent school exam results and university beckoned. Circumstances changed but work and further study then followed. One day Craig appeared back in the DSF office and volunteered to sign up for a succession of Scottish Swimming teaching and coaching awards.
Mentored on the pool deck by Lara Ferguson, Craig joined Glenrothes Amateur Swimming Club and became a very popular and successful teacher. Never one to sit around Craig was then off to Glasgow to pursue the next chapter of his young exciting life.
Craig has recently committed his time and expertise to the Scottish Disability Sport Young Start Futures team. One of Craig’s roles was to work as a member of the team and help members with the application for future programme funding. Craig’s role was to create a member’s survey that would determine how team members envisaged the programme developing if a funding application was successful.
On the back of the survey responses Craig reached out and attended meetings with SAMH and Scottish Sport Futures to determine what they could offer to the programme and also of course to seek advice. Craig collaborated with other members of the Young Start Futures team plus the programme mentors. A summary of the plans for the programme was prepared and Craig was proud to be part of the team that presented the details to members of the Big Lottery at their office in Glasgow.
Craig was also thrilled to be part of the small team from Scotland that travelled to London for the UK Coaching Awards. Craig’s role was to represent the Scottish programme as finalists in the transforming coaching award section.
At the recent Young Start Futures residential at Inverclyde, Craig was part of the Young Start Futures team that presented the ideas for the future of the programme to the rest of the Young Start group. Scott Tait from Wee Flee productions provided an excellent session on creating videos with phones. Leading on from this session, Craig met up with Scott to assist with the edit of the footage from the weekend and ensure the young person’s message comes across as intended. Robert Nesbitt of SAMH was also in attendance at the residential.
Over the years I can think of several Disability Sport Fife members who have enthusiastically offered their time and expertise for the benefit of others. Craig Smith is the most recent and we wish him continued success in his quest to support, encourage and inspire other young people with disabilities into sports coaching. Craig’s teaching/coaching journey has been impressive so far and I am sure he has much more to offer. Well done Craig, we are all so proud of you back here in Fife.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees