First established 36 years ago, Swale Combined Athletics is a club focused on inclusivity and encouragement.
With members ranging from age 9 to 60, CommunityAd chatted to Club Coach, Andrew Scoones, to find out more about the club.
When and why was Swale Combined Athletics Club first formed?
There were originally two local clubs in the area; Sittingbourne and District AC and Sheppey AC. However, both were too small on their own to enter league-based competition for their athletes, so the clubs merged to form Swale Combined AC in 1986. This allowed the Club to enter the Southern Men’s Athletics League. The club later entered the Southern Women’s League and the Kent Young Athletes Leagues to offer competition for all ages.
Our current Head Coach and Club Chairman, Richard Scoones, was a member of Sittingbourne and District AC and a founding member of Swale Combined AC.
Can you give readers a background into your own career in athletics?
I’m a middle to long distance runner; anything from 800m up to half marathon. Richard is my dad and so I’ve been a member of the club since I was about 8 years old however, it took me a long time to find my feet in the sport. As a young athlete I usually finished last in any competition I did. Fortunately, as I grew up, I enjoyed pushing myself, regardless of finishing position, and eventually improved. While my times are now reasonably quick, I’m by no means elite however I’m lucky enough to have been able to race some Team GB athletes, have qualified for several Kent Championship finals where I’ve medalled a few times and even won gold once or twice. My racing highlight is completing the World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia in 2018.
I still train and race, but my time is now split between training and coaching after taking a coaching qualification in 2008. I’ve since developed my coaching to a high level and enjoy coaching the clubs Combined Eventers and Hurdlers. I’ve been fortunate to work with some great young athletes, seeing them to county, regional and national finals for various events. It’s cliché to say but it is incredibly rewarding than being able to teach someone something, help them develop that skill then see them improve and be successful on a competitive stage.
This year I was elected as President of Kent County Athletics Association which is a real honour after being involved in the sport as long as I can remember.
What would you say have been the club’s most memorable moments so far and what is your ethos?
I hope the athletes involved in the club over the last 36 years have all taken away some of their own memorable moments from their time with us. As a small club, with very limited facilities in the local area, we pride ourselves on the dedication of our coaching team to help everyone at the club improve and to give everyone the opportunity to train and compete no matter their ability. This inclusive approach allows anyone to come and try the sport, find something they enjoy and want to get better at whether that’s running, throwing or jumping events.
We have a small but great group of volunteer coaches that always give their time and best efforts for our athletes, I can confidently tell our new members on training nights that if they give us 100% we’ll give them 100% back.
At the end of the 2018 season we were lucky to be joined by Lily Murray, a young athlete who was already a formidable Hammer thrower and English Schools Champion at the time. While we can’t say we’ve been crucial to her development as she’s coached by Germany’s Lutz Caspers and now GB’s Gareth Cook, it’s been outstanding to have Lily on the team, seeing her at our league matches and being part of her journey as she develops into one of the best female throwers in the country. I went to Manchester in 2021 to watch Lily in her first competition representing Team GB.
On a personal level, a moment I’ll never forget the first national competition I had an athlete in that I had coached. It was their first national level competition, I’d coached them from a young age right up to that level and seeing them picked as team captain for Kent, I was a very proud coach, it was really special for me.
What is the secret behind keeping this wonderful club running and how were you able to keep going during the height of the pandemic?
It’s really down to the dedication of our volunteers. I mentioned our great group of coaches already. There’s a whole group of volunteers behind us on the administrative side of things and helping the club grow, without them we really couldn’t do what we do.
Alongside our committee and coaches we have some truly great athletes with us who all have great attitudes, bringing loads of energy and positivity to training and competitions.
Throughout the pandemic we did as much as we were able to and allowed to do; we put workouts online, video demos of exercises, challenges, did a virtual time-trial running league, as lockdowns eased, we started getting small groups of athletes back to some training in local parks. It was difficult for us but fortunately we came through in a strong position.
How has athletics and more personally Swale Combined Athletics Club helped members overall from a physical, mental and social aspect?
Athletics is a very diverse sport with a wide range of events to choose from and you can do it regardless of your age or athletic ability. If you don’t like running, for example, there are still a lot of other events to try out. We’ve got members from age 9 through to age 60 who all enjoy training, competing and doing their best. I believe that this allows anyone to come into the sport whether they want to try and win or just come along socially. The individual nature of the sport means that for those that want to improve their performances you have to put in the training. It’s a great way to stay in shape and test yourself whether it’s running a faster parkrun, sprinting 100m or throwing the Javelin further.
Socially, we’ve currently got a great group of young athletes at the moment and while they all take part in league competitions and all want to improve, they all enjoy hanging out together which creates a great team spirit. Recently, we booked time at Ninja Warrior for our young athletes’ team who had a great time socialising together away from the sport.
For our seniors we’re a diverse group of ability and events but we enjoy coming together on match days and for social days. We’ve also just started a social running group for all abilities on Friday evenings with two of our most experienced ultra-runners, Josie Nye and Natalie Long, which we’re hoping will help people get involved in running, staying in shape and have a great time doing it.
Are you currently looking for any members/volunteers and if so, how can readers get in touch?
Definitely, we’re always open to new members.
We offer training on Monday evenings for under 11s and under 13s. Wednesdays for all age groups. Fridays for under 15s and above in the gym. As well as our new senior running group also on Fridays.
Anyone interested in getting involved in training with us should email: [email protected]
Where would you like Swale Combined Athletics Club to be in the next 20 plus years?
I would love to see that the local area has invested in the sport of track and field athletics so that we can still be here in Swale providing high quality training for all age groups and abilities on an actual athletics track. One of our biggest obstacles is that there’s no facility in Sittingbourne or Sheppey for athletics. It would be great to see that our current athletes were able to develop their abilities to national and international level having been able to train and compete at facilities in their home towns.