Raploch teenager hopes to net prize
St Modan’s pupil aims for community gong
A member of a Raploch basketball team is in the running for a national sports award.
Sixteen-year-old Vincent Connolly, of Shell Twilight Basketball, has reached the finals of sportscotland’s Year of Young People Awards.
The St Modan’s High pupil could walk away with the community champion of the year award later this month.
Vincent, who has an ambassador role, has been attending Twilight for seven years.
The initiative – run by Scottish Sports Futures in conjunction with the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities and Shell – provides free basketball sessions in a safe setting.
Vincent said his involvement in sport has helped him mature. It also gives him great satisfaction seeing the progress youngsters make under his wing, both at Twilight and through volunteering at the Big Noise Music programme in Stirling.
He commented: “I was immature until I was made ambassador and given an adult role, then I felt this could help my future career.
“When I leave school I’m thinking of doing something in sport or coaching. The ambassador course and Twilight helped steer me in that direction.
“I also help at the Big Noise music programme in Stirling. I can see the improvement in the children who go there and I see the same in the kids who come to the basketball.
“It feels great; it feels like I’m having an impact on their lives.”
The ceremony takes place on January 26 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow when 10 awards will honour the contribution of young people who engage in sport through SSF and those who have supported them throughout the year.
Tickets cost £38 for coaches or young people involved within SSF, £50 for an individual and £450 for a table. Places will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. For more information contact kirsty@ ssf.org.uk.