Sport / Athletics club issues plea for new volunteers as group reaches ‘critical juncture’
An EGM will be held in Lerwick on 1 March
THE SHETLAND Amateur Athletics Club (AAC) faces an uncertain future as it looks to recruit new volunteers to its committee and coaching team.
The club is nearly 30 years old, but it is now at a “critical juncture”, according to chairperson Elaine Park.
An EGM has been called for 1 March at the Sandveien Neighbourhood Centre in Lerwick from 6.15pm in the hope of filling vacancies on its committee.
“If we cannot get enough help at this meeting, the committee will be forced to call a further EGM, the sole purpose of which will be to dissolve the club and athletics provision in Shetland will cease,” Park said.
She said anyone interested in helping is welcome to attend, even if they do not have experience of athletics as people can undergo induction into the sport.
Scottish Athletics is on hand to support with coaching courses, while the council’s sports development team is offering support.
“I sincerely hope folk will get behind the club,” Park said. “It’s sometimes difficult I think for folk to appreciate the value of something until it’s maybe not here, so we’re kind of hoping we don’t get to that point.”
It is felt that the Covid pandemic has affected the running of the club.
Coaching numbers are said to be unsustainable, and there are so few remaining committee members that ongoing operation of the club’s business is being impacted.
Park said some coaches are doing five or six sessions a week whilst also doing two or three jobs on the committee.
“We can’t ask that of people for an extended period of time,” she said.
The AAC is the most northerly club of its kind in the UK, and it has overseen success among Shetland athletes.
More than 100 athletes are currently training with the club, from age seven up to the master’s category. However, there were more than 200 on the books around a year before the Covid pandemic.
Park herself joined the club when it started, and more latterly she won an Islands Games silver medal in hammer throwing in 2015.
“I got a huge amount out of athletics when I was younger,” she said.
“Some of my most lasting friendships have been folk I’ve met through the club. I just want to make sure everyone’s got the opportunity to experience that.”
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