A powerchair football club based in Dundee and Angus has launched brand new sessions for beginners, thanks to funding from The National Lottery.
The Tayside Dynamos Powerchair Football Club was awarded £7000 from National Lottery Awards for All Scotland, distributed by sportscotland, to help grow the club and get more young people with disabilities involved in sport.
The Dynamos are one of 136 community groups sharing National Lottery grants totalling £952,883 in a round of funding for good causes across sport, arts, heritage and more.
A new session for people who have never played powerchair football before and are interested in joining the team has been launched in partnership with Dundee United Para-Football Club, under the name Dundee United Dynamos, hosted at Fintry Primary School.
Build confidence
Held weekly, the new classes will teach beginners the basics and give them a good grounding in the dos and don’ts of powerchair football and to start developing their skills.
Tayside Dynamos Powerchair Football Club secretary and founder Ryan Galloway explained why the new sessions are so important. He said: “Before we received National Lottery funding for this extra training, any new players who wanted to give powerchair football a try would have to come to a session with all of our existing, and very experienced, players.
“We found this could be quite overwhelming for someone who is brand new to the sport so we wanted to take away some of the pressure and create a separate environment for beginners where we can work to build players’ confidence and let them try the sport and have fun.
“Through these new classes, we hope to create a development team which will feed new talent into the club and help us grow. We are a volunteer organisation and ask members to pay very small fees so with this support, we can keep costs down for people and introduce new opportunities to participate.”
Life-changing projects
This year marks the 25th birthday of The National Lottery, with more than £40 billion raised for good causes. The Tayside Dynamos have received one of over 565,000 individual grants that have been awarded across the UK since 1994 – the equivalent of 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district.
A National Lottery Awards for All spokesperson said: “This is National Lottery money in action, reaching into communities across Scotland making a real difference to the people who live there. The 136 groups receiving funding showcases the range of projects that can be funded through this programme and the difference that the smallest amounts of money can make.”
sportscotland chief executive Stewart Harris said: “We see time and again the positive impact sport can have on people’s overall wellbeing and the sense of belonging that clubs create in communities across Scotland.
“The Tayside Dynamos are a fantastic example of a group of dedicated individuals delivering impactful disability sport in Angus.
"The support from The National Lottery will allow them to continue to flourish and provide even more valuable sporting opportunities.”
Family atmosphere
Founded in 2013, the Dynamos quickly became one of Scotland’s most successful powerchair football teams, establishing bases at Forfar Community Campus and Forfar and Fintry primary schools in Dundee. They were the first Scottish side to play in a European competition when they participated in their first international tournament, the Geneva Cup, earlier this year.
Ryan added: “It’s fantastic to see the club continue to flourish. The international competition was a great learning curve for our team and a fantastic experience.
“The competitive side of things is great but more importantly, the club is passionate about creating a family atmosphere that gives young people in Tayside with disabilities the chance to get into sport and meet new friends – and that’s what these new sessions are all about.”
Find out more
- Discover the positive impact playing the National Lottery has had on your community over the past 25 years by visiting www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the 25th hashtag: #NationalLottery25
- Find out about getting involved in powerchair football on the Scottish Disability Sport website
