beyondthebackpages.com - by Tom Brown
From Gareth Bale to Dai Greene, Shane Williams to Joe Calzaghe, Wales has never struggled to produce top sporting stars.
But elite athletes don’t make it to the top by themselves. Behind every star there’s a coach. Sometimes a team of coaches. And yet whilst their athletes soak up the glory in stadia around the world, these selfless characters tend to stay out of the limelight.
That is until one afternoon in November, when Sport Wales announced the 2010 Coach of the Year awards at Sofia Gardens in Cardiff. The event celebrated the achievements of coaches and trainers from across Wales, who give up hours of their lives every week to help people, young and old, take part in sport.
"Unbelievable, momentous, honoured, proud": Coach of the Year Peter Pearse (photo used with kind permission of Peter Pearse)
And the winner was Peter Pearse – a 39 year old former Paralympian who now coaches the Welsh Boccia team. Boccia is a bowls-like sport played by wheelchair users and has been played at the Paralympics since 1984. Peter represented the Great Britain boccia team at four Paralympic Games and took up his position in Wales in 2007.
Since then the stature of Welsh boccia has grown immensely, with Peter introducing a whole new structure to the coaching at the Welsh Academy. This year his Boccia team put in an excellent performance at the GB National Championships and three of his younger competitors have made it to the final stages of the London 2012 Fast Track programme.
“He’s taken a young talented group of players and made them world class”:
Gerwyn Owen, Academy Manager at Disability Sport Wales
Having taken on the role of starting up the Welsh Academy in 2007, in 2010 funding allowed the squad to travel and win countless titles across the UK and Europe, and some athletes were selected on the GB Fast-track program aiming for a place at London 2012.
In 2010 at the GB Boccia Nationals in Scotland, two Welsh players, Jacob Thomas and Karl Parish, brought back medals for Wales.
Karl Parish runner up (Silver Medalist) in the BC3 Category, and Jacob Thomas was the winner (Gold Medalist) in the BC3 Category.
Jacob, a true young gentleman, had a huge impact on the world and me personally. His death in 2020 had a huge impact on everyone who knew him and I align myself with the tributes paid here:
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