Princess Anne gives Northampton football coach award for keeping children active during Covid lockdowns

A Northampton football coach has been given a national award by Princess Anne for his efforts in keeping children active during the coronavirus lockdowns.

Lee Reade was one of 25 winners to be honoured at the UK Coaching Hero Awards after nearly 500 nominations from members of the public.

Each received a memento from The Princess Royal, who is a patron for the organisation, to mark the considerable difference they made to people’s mental and physical well-being during the pandemic.

Lee said: “To be nominated by those I coach, to be accepted and recognised for The UK Coaching Heroes Award was an extremely proud moment.

"As in many grassroots sports, a coach is often a ‘background figure’ to any sporting success, so personal recognition was truly an honour."

Lee has been a football goalkeeper coach for nearly 20 years, helping players who have gone on to play at international youth level and at many clubs from the Northampton and Milton Keynes area.

As lockdown prohibited organised sport, he had to draw on all his coaching experience and be inventive to try to keep his participants active.

To engage with his younger participants, Lee created themed Jurassic Park adventures, where participants had to solve clues and complete activity challenges.

With a keen focus on mental health given the anxieties only exacerbated by the pandemic, he wanted to continue delivering his coaching and education to ensure that every young person was supported in every way possible.

“The pandemic was the biggest challenge I have had in my coaching career. The ethos of successful coaching is to be able to develop a person’s ability in any sport to their maximum level," he said.

"In the main, I believed this could only be done with personal contact to ensure correct techniques and development.

"With that contact being taken away due to the pandemic, I not only had to change how I delivered coaching advice but also how that was interpreted and performed, to ensure that correct development could continue."

Lee's work as a 'cyber coach' grew to an extent where he was working more hours than he was pre-Covid but he thinks it was justified.

“I feel honoured to be able to be a part of these young individuals' lives, coaching them and aiding in their development not only in sport and fitness, but assisting them in their life goals and mental health along the journey," he explained.

"Mental health is something we at thekeeper.co.uk take very seriously and strive to ensure all our clients know there is always someone there to listen to them, at any time.

"We are often referred to as 'family' and I strongly believe this is an essential part of great coaching.”

UK Coaching opened nominations to its 'hero' awards initiative in 2020 after the first Covid lockdown from March to June to acknowledge the efforts of coaches.

Director of coaching Emma Atkins, said: “Many congratulations to Lee and all our winners.

"We applaud your efforts and the role you played in your communities, boosting morale and lifting people’s moods in a completely alienating time.

“Helping people to use sport and physical activity positively through challenging times is a privilege and one which carries huge responsibilities, and you took your duties seriously,

using your initiative to create solutions to the embargo on most sport and physical activity – looking always to what was possible – thank you.”