Kirsty receives sport award for doing ‘fantastic job’ with Thurso swimmers
A stalwart of Thurso Amateur Swimming Club is this year’s recipient of the Caithness service-to-sport award.
Kirsty Mackay is a familiar face at the High Life Highland (HLH) pool where she spends most of her leisure time helping club members make the most of their talent.
The award, which is put up by Scottish ClubSport, was presented at the annual awards ceremony staged by Caithness Sports Council. It recognises an outstanding voluntary contribution to sport by an individual in an administrative, coaching or official capacity.
Kirsty has been involved with the club in a range of roles over the past 15 years, including committee member, secretary, lifeguard and competition timekeeper. But it is in her commitment and dedication as a coach that she has really excelled.
She started helping with the stroke development sessions before also getting involved with the competition squads. She gradually worked her way from the “D” to the “C” and “B” squads before the sudden death of head coach Andy Foster in 2020.
This left a huge void for the club to fill but Kirsty stepped up and volunteered to take on the head coach role as well as coaching the “A” squad.
During lockdowns, Kirsty, along with fellow coach Shirley Bain, coordinated a range of online activities and exercises for club members to undertake while they could not get in the water.
Club president Robbie Campbell said: “They did this with an infectious enthusiasm that kept all of our senior squad swimmers fully engaged in the club, which was a huge credit to them all. Kirsty has held this role ever since and has done a fantastic job with all the swimmers.”
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During Kirsty’s time in charge, Thurso swimmers have broken numerous club and meet records and won medals at district and national events.
“We have had four swimmers reach national junior academy level and we took home an unprecedented four titles at the recent North District Open Swimming Championships.
“These achievements take a huge amount of effort from our swimmers and it simply wouldn’t be possible without a similar level of effort and enthusiasm from Kirsty as their head coach.”
Robbie pointed out that Kirsty is poolside 15 hours a week overseeing “A” squad and stroke development sessions.
“When you factor in session planning, that would rise to around 20 hours per week and that does not include competitions when Kirsty arranges time off from work and family life to go and support our swimmers at regional and national competitions,” he said.
“Kirsty does all of this on a completely voluntary basis. She does not ask for nor expect any kind of payment for all the work she puts into the club.
“She does it purely for the love of the sport and for the reward of seeing her fantastic team of swimmers achieve all their goals.”
HLH chief executive Steve Walsh said: “We are extremely proud of Kirsty.
“This award is deserved recognition for the contribution she is making towards her local community – giving up her time voluntarily for an activity that she is passionate about, on top of the work she does as leisure manager at Thurso Leisure Centre.”