At the end of 2024 Smile Through Sport undertook a Sports Coach recruitment drive to ensure we could sustain and grow Smile especially with the demand of work we were predicting in the New Year of 2025! This is where Smile discovered Lee. We were fortunate enough to interview Lee at one of our regular sessions with Journey Enterprises, who did put Lee through his paces. However we were blown away with how Lee delivered and interacted with the group especially just meeting them for the first time and of course the pressures of being in an interview situation.
That was it, Smile were delighted to offer Lee a role within the team and Lee started his coaching career with us in January. Since starting he has hit the ground running, delivering across the board from SEN schools, community sessions, day centres and care homes. Lee is certainly a great addition to the Smile team, and hopefully you’ve had the pleasure of meeting him or will do very shortly.
We asked Lee how he was finding working for Smile, take a look at what he said….
How are you settling in?
I’ve been with the charity for about 6 weeks now and I honestly couldn’t be more chuffed with how it’s going so far.
How did you end up at Smile?
So my background is in fitness, I’m a qualified Personal Trainer and have always been passionate not just about the benefits of exercise for everyone but specifically in helping people who maybe don’t feel like physical activity is really for them either because of circumstances or a perceived lack of ability.
In my previous role I worked in a gym & helped all sorts of people, all with different circumstances but I found that helping to make exercise accessible to everyone was the most rewarding part of the job. When I left that role it was clear to me that I wanted to lean into that even further and it was actually my wife who stumbled on the newly advertised position with Smile. I mentioned to a few people that I had applied, some friends, some gym colleagues/clients, and literally every single one of them had the same reaction; “ah that’s sounds like the perfect job for you”.
Now that you’re here, how’s it going?
Like I said earlier, I’ve been with Smile for around 6 weeks and it’s been great so far. Nobody likes feeling like the new kid at school but once I’d coached at a few different places and met a few different faces I found my rhythm to the point where now, most days genuinely don’t feel like work. The great thing about sports coaching is that no two sessions are the same and there’s always something to laugh and joke about whether you’re working in a primary school, a care home or one on one.
It always makes me laugh that most participants seem to get more and more competitive as the session progresses, that’s normally a sign that things are going well and hearing the phrase “eee I didn’t think I’d be able to do that” never gets old!
