Judo ace Laurie nominated for top UK coaching award

Laurie Rush with two of his young class members

The UK Coaching Awards honour sports coaches and coaching organisations who have demonstrated outstanding success over the previous 12 months.

This year’s star-studded black-tie event will be held at the iconic Midland Hotel in Manchester on December 1 and Berkhamsted’s Laurie Rush will be in attendance after being nominated for the Children’s Coach of the Year award.

Based at Ashlyns School, Rush has had to put on extra sessions to cope with the demand. He also gives up his weekends to take participants to compete in tournaments.

His popularity is clear throughout the region as Rush has set up open sessions for other judo clubs to work together and learn.

Previous winners at the UK Coaching Awards include Jessica Ennis-Hill’s mentor Toni Minichiello and Sir Alex, and chief executive officer of sports coach UK Tony Byrne insists that Rush and his fellow nominees fully deserve to be up for one of the 12 gongs up for grabs.

“The quality of this year’s finalists has again been fantastic and the expert judging panel struggled to narrow down the finalists from the 1000+ nominations that we received,” he said.

“The UK Coaching Awards are an opportunity for us to take the time to thank our current coaching workforce that deliver excellent sporting experiences for all.

“Coaching is at the heart of sport and has the capacity to enable every child, player and athlete to follow their dreams, have fun and fulfil their potential.

“The evening gives us the chance to raise the profile of coaches and the role that they play in encouraging participation, performance and excellence.”

The UK Coaching Awards 2015, hosted by sports coach UK is a chance to recognise excellent coaching and coaching organisations that have achieved outstanding success over the past 12 months. For more information visit www.sportscoachuk.org