MEMBER STORIES – MEET CONNOR

At 16 years old, Connor Boyd of Kinross Juniors is the youngest curler yet to train to become a coach in Scotland.

With curling described as his ‘safe place’ Connor took his passion for the sport a step further last season when he initially picked up volunteering. Kinross Curling and the develop-ment team there have done a superb job in supporting and enabling him to assist coaches through-out the winter as an on-ice helper. Having attended the recent Level 1 course held at his home rink (and a mere two days after his 16th birthday!), Connor is well on his way to becoming a qualified coach. Speaking at the course, he told us about his journey.

I originally took up coaching because I did it for my volunteering experience and certification. After I completed that I just continued with coaching. Kim [Dalland; curling development officer at Kinross Curling] then suggested that I should go for my Level 1 Coaching certificate and I decided, let’s do it!

I wanted to take up coaching at such a young age because it allows me to gain experience from other coaches, understand how they coach, and take that into account for how I coach other people. And then I’ll be able to expand on that with the people that I coach later on in life.

My biggest motivation is trying to make people aware of the sport because not many people know about it – and I feel that they should! So they could come along and try it out and we can get more people involved in curling.

I love the sport of curling because it’s available to everyone. And not many people know about it! So whenever someone asks me, ‘oh, what sport do you do?,’ I’m able to say ‘I do curling’. And then they’ll ask me what it is, and I get to tell them all about it – and I just love telling people about it!

Do you think coaching might be right for you too? Contact Scottish Curling’s Workforce Development Manager Fiona Harfield on fiona@scottishcurling.org.