Earlier this year I nominated our Head Coach and Youth Development Officer, Mike Avis, for the Sport Scotland Young Person’s Coach of the year for 2011. Mid November I received a call from Sport Scotland and was informed that Mike had beaten off 130 other sports coaches (not just rugby, but all sports!) and had won this award! For this Mike receives a cheque to improve his Continuous Personal Development for £300, a glass cut bowl and the entire accolade that goes with the title! He will be awarded this on 15th December at 19:30 at the Meadows, Ellon. It will be awarded on the pitch in the middle of a training session and all are welcome to attend.
Further to this Mike was then put forward to the UK Coaching awards to represent Scotland in the United Kingdom Children’s Coach of the Year Award. So in late November, Mike and I travelled to London for the big event!
We flew down on the 28th November, the night before to make sure we were prepared. After intending to go to bed early, we went out for a Thai meal and a few beers, then a few cocktails! Not so early to bed then! However we were still up early for a gym, swim and steam before breakfast.
We stayed two nights at the Kensington Close Hotel, which was very nice. They were doing some renovations, but this didn’t disturb us too much. At this point I must thank Martin Sisley (our P7 Head Coach) for his kind sponsorship of the rooms for Mike and me. His company Saipem is a leading global offshore construction company, focused on subsea field developments and fixed facilities; and they were very kind enough to support Mike in these awards.
The day was spent wandering the sites of London and having a few cups of Coffee! Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.
The evening started with us arriving at the five star Jumeirah Calton Tower Hotel in Knightsbridge, at 18:15 for drinks. Whilst I settled the nerves with a glass, or four, of Champagne, Mike was whisked away with the other nominations to meet HRH Princess Anne. Whilst they chatted about Scottish Rugby, I mingled with a few people, mainly with the head guy for the English Commonwealth Games team. Who wanted to know if their team would get booed at the Opening Ceremony in 2014 in Glasgow!!
Mike re-joined me and we took our seats at the Sport Scotland table near the front along with Henry Edwards from the SRU Coach Development section. The evening was opened by HRH and Chris Baillieu (Chair of Sport Scotland) and then handed over to Rob Bonnet to MC the evening. Awards in support of coaching were given out first, followed by a fantastic meal. Food couldn’t have been better and the wine flowed freely!
After dinner the Awards for Coaching were given out and Mike was up second. Each person in The Children’s Coach of the Year award had a video played of their photos and video footage, with Rob Bonnet reading extracts from the nomination. Mike was up against a Judo Coach and a Rugby League Coach, both women. After a brief pause (not X-Factor Style!) Mike was announced as the winner! He received a big (manly!) hug from me and handshakes from all the Sport Scotland crowd and Henry Edwards. Up he went and received his award from HRH, smiled for some photos and then they moved on to the other categories!
After the ceremony the bar was the place to be and Sport Scotland shouted a few rounds and we chatted with the Sport Scotland crowd and Henry Edwards. We soon sneaked out and headed up the road to a quieter hotel with a fantastic champagne bar. Joined by Henry Edwards and two ladies from Basketball Scotland, we polished off a few bottles of bubbly! After a quick taxi back to the hotel Mike and I relaxed in our hotel lounge with another bottle, along with some sandwiches!
The next day was supposed to be a trip to the palace of Westminster for a buffet lunch with the Sports Minister and some of his colleagues, however due to the strikes it was cancelled. That meant Mike and I have a long walk along the Thames to try and kill the hangover, before flying back up to Aberdeen that evening.

It was an outstanding few days and a fantastic result for Mike, Ellon, the NE of Scotland and Rugby in general.

Check out the photo section of the web site for photos of the event.

Gareth Kemp
2nd December 2011