Adrienne Hunter has been named Local Hero at the 2017 Sunday Mail sportscotland Scottish Sports Awards

Fever pitch

2017 Local Hero Adrienne Hunter aims to keep developing her club 

After seven years and having held almost every position imaginable at Glasgow Fever Basketball Club, Adrienne Hunter’s drive to lead the club has not diminished one bit.

Adrienne is one of Scotland’s leading coach developers. Having already seen her contribution to sport recognised with the Coach Developer of the Year Award at the sportscotland COV Awards in November, she has now carried off a second trophy after winning the Local Hero award at the 2017 Sunday Mail sportscotland Scottish Sports Awards.

The 38-year-old Glasgow resident, originally from Ayrshire, has been awarded the accolades for her commitment and passion for coaching across a variety of sports and local authorities.

Nationwide influence

From athletics and bowls to gymnastics and judo, coach developer Adrienne has travelled across Scotland to deliver workshops in 26 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, engaging a variety of organisations including clubs, schools and charities.

In her own time she is the driving force behind Glasgow Fever’s continued success. The club has grown from having 10 female members at its inception in 2010, to 300 across women’s, men’s and junior teams. The club were helped along the way by the sportscotland Direct Club Investment programme in 2014.

The National Lotterry funded scheme allowed Glasgow Fever to pay for a community coach to run sessions in local schools.

Over the past year alone, Adrienne's roles at the club have included chairperson, coach, social media and marketing coordinator, finance officer and fundraiser, line manager, mentor, parent liaison and child protection officer.

Adrienne Hunter jokes with her players

Despite the long hours of volunteering, Adrienne’s dedication is unwavering as she gets set to lead the club in the creation of new teams in an attempt to achieve her goal of having a club which caters for everyone regardless of sex, age or ability.

She said: “The drive I have has probably increased, the more people become involved the more motivated you become.

“It’s amazing to see the growth in the club. The number of people who have been involved in the club over the past few years has been amazing. It’s a big part of my life and I love it.

“Seven years ago if you had told me I’d have been involved in a club with up to 300 people, from kids at three or four right up to adult men and women, I would never have believed it.

“We just wanted it to be a strong social group where people could come and enjoy basketball.

“It’s grown vastly and that was never really in the plan. The new sections have had a great response and we now have two senior men's team competing.

“We are trying to grow the club in the Clydebank area. We’ve just launched some wheelchair basketball; we’re going to be looking at walking basketball. So if you want to play basketball at whatever age, stage or ability, we want to be able to provide that. And we’ll work with people to try to make that happen.”

Mixing it with the stars

With Adrienne’s mantelpiece becoming crowded with awards, she admitted it was a surreal experience to win a prize at the Scottish Sports Awards among celebrated sporting idols such as Brendan Rodgers, Leigh Griffiths, Sammi Kinghorn and Stuart Hogg.

Adrienne conceded she still had to pinch herself when she had the chance to reflect on Glasgow Fever’s progress under her tutelage.

Adrienne Hunter with Glasgow Fever players

She added: “It was a bit surreal to win at such a high-profile event with some big names in Scottish sport.

“Sometimes it is a bit strange when I pop along to a session at the club or end up refereeing a game, I end up thinking ‘this is amazing, so many people playing at so many different levels and enjoying it so much’.

“It really started off with senior women, I honestly had no aspiration of anything other than ‘lets get women playing basketball’.

“Then after a while we thought ‘lets get some kids involved’, then it grew and grew.”

Find out more 

If you are interested in basketball please visit the Basketball Scotland website.

 

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