SPORTS STARS GO UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT...
GLASGOW’S physical education experts have been busy engaging sports stars in a lockdown Q&A. The PEPASS (Physical Education, Physical Activity and School Sport) team asked youngsters from across the city to pose their burning questions to athletes from the worlds of basketball, rugby and football.
David Weir, of PEPASS, quizzed Adam Ashe and D’Arcy Rae of Glasgow Warriors; Kieron Achara of Glasgow Rocks; and footballer Lawrence Shankland of Dundee United.
To see the complete videos go to the PEPASS Youtube channel: tinyurl.com/ybrv3o5r
But here’s some of what they had to say...
• A P7 pupil at St Francis of Assisi Primary asked Adam: Have you been playing since you were young and was being a rugby player your dream job?
Adam said: “I started play rugby when I was six-years-old.
“My dad took me along to the local rugby club called Hillfoots, just outside Stirling.
“Actually a lot of the friends that I still see and some of the guys I still play with, originated from that team so that’s pretty cool.
“I played for a few years, and as time went on I ended up getting involved in some other sports – things like golf, football, athletics, swimming, these kind of things, and I ended up stopping rugby for a while.
“When I was 14, rugby.
“My PE teacher at school said to me ‘What you doing playing for the football team? You’re a big lad. You should playing in the rugby team’.
I went back to
“So, I went back to play for Hillfoots and I played a few games for the school and as time went on, I was really enjoying it and loving it so I went to play for Stirling County, which is my team that I came right through, before joining Glasgow Warriors.”
D’Arcy added: “From a young age, I was quite interested in rugby and really enjoyed it.
“From the age of about 15, I was pretty sure that I wanted to be a professional rugby player.”
• A P7 pupil at St Michael’s Primary asks: What’s your greatest success in a game and your career?
Adam said: “Probably getting my first cap against Ireland last year – that was pretty special.
“The whole family was there. “The whole extended family was there and I ended up getting an award from my local club back home because I was one of only three or four people to play for
Scotland from Marr.
“So it was pretty special for the club and for my family.
“Even though it was deflating we lost, it was still pretty special.”
• A P7 at St Mary’s Primary School wanted to ask Kieron two questions: How difficult was it to progress to professional level and especially in Scotland; and what advice would you give someone wanting to go down that path?
The basketball star said: “That’s quite a hard one to answer because it was never really my driving factor.
“For me, my purpose was to get a scholarship to America for my education.
“So I was really driven by that. “My focus then, at that moment in time, was being the best I could possibly be.
“I was very fortunate in that sense that I was working hard every single day to be the best I could possibly be.