Ben Holme

Inverness High School pupil Sarai Grant, 13, had no intention of going to the female sessions being held in her school in May 2019 when Liam Foy stopped her in the corridor and encouraged her to come along.

In addition to being the Head Coach at Highland Boxing Academy, Liam also works at Inverness High School and knew of Sarai as someone that was excelling at other sports, and thought that same aptitude might make her good at boxing.

The sessions were the first as part of 20 Active Schools sessions that Highland Boxing Academy would hold in four Inverness schools between May-December 2019 as part of the Boxing Scotland Woman and Girls Fund Project, after the governing body had successfully received £13,600 of funding from sportscotland to increase female participation in the sport.

Ten affiliated boxing clubs across Scotland took part in the project with 1,261 participants taking part in the 164 Active Schools sessions and 18 Regional Female Training sessions that were hosted between April 2019 – March 2020.

Despite never having put a pair of boxing gloves on before that day, Sarai was a natural and when the school sessions finished at Inverness High School, she followed on to join the club over the summer of 2019.

Sarai would continue to train at the Merkinch club over the coming months in addition to attending the Woman and Girl Fund sessions that were hosted each Friday 5pm-6pm, which had transitioned after the summer from the school setting to being hosted at the club’s gym.

Sarai would eventually register to become a competitive boxer in September 2019 and would be entered into her first competition, the Boxing Scotland Novice Championships, two months later, where unfortunately she would lose.

However, undeterred, Sarai would enter the Boxing Scotland School and Junior National Championships in February 2020, which she would win to become Scottish champion – just nine months on from throwing her first punch as part of the Woman and Girls Fund project.

“I heard her name popping up in the school and knew she had a willingness to engage in sport and I could see some similarities with some female boxers I have worked with in the past,” explained Highland Boxing Academy Head Coach Liam Foy.

“When I approached her in the corridor about coming to the boxing class she wasn’t dismissive in any way, and I could tell that she fancied trying it, and it all fell into place after that.

“With some people you can see immediately that they have grit and determination and a fire in their belly, and you could see all that with Sarai straight away. We knew she had a competitive edge.

“She looked like she was hungry and wanted to push herself and challenge herself. I knew that she had the potential to compete pretty much straight away, although I needed to see how committed she was.

“But ever since she first came to the school session she has been in the gym right up until this lockdown. Even when she lost at the Novices, it made no change to her participation.

“After she lost at the Novices, I said to her and her Mum and Dad that I was confident she would win a title very, very soon.

“I said she has potential and everything she is doing is right, so it was not a matter of if she would win a title, it was a matter of when.”

Dear Members,

Boxing Scotland is delighted to share with you that more than 1,200 participants in the past year took part in sessions as part of a project to boost female participation.

In March 2019, Boxing Scotland was successful in applying for a £13,600 grant from sportscotland’s Woman and Girls Fund.

The Fund was set up by the Scottish Government, with projects having to meet the programme outcome of ‘More woman and girls are participating in sport and physical activity’.

Since April of last year, 10 boxing clubs have been carrying out the project across Scotland. The 10 clubs were; Alloa BC, Bellahouston BC, Dunfermline BC, Granite City BC, Highland Boxing Academy, Leith Victoria BC, Lochee BC, Noble Art BC, Southside Boxing Academy and Wellmeadow BC.

These clubs were recruited into the project to fulfil a programme of activity that included; 16 female-only Active Schools sessions at local schools and six Regional Female Training sessions in their own club each, equating to 160 Active Schools sessions and 60 Regional Female Training Sessions in total.

Before the sporting world was shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, the clubs had successfully held 164 Active Schools sessions across 21 schools and 18 Regional Female Training sessions so far.

These sessions had a combined total of 1,261 female participants, which was broken down to 515 distinct female participants, with more than 90% of them being under the age of 18.

With the project having been expected to run until June 2020, unfortunately the final three and a half months of the project, when the majority of the Regional Female Training Sessions were due to take part, have been postponed for the time being because of the pandemic.

However, for those who have already taken part, there has been clear evidence that they have become more active as a result of the project. Only 50.1% of surveyed partipants were managing at least one hour of exercise per day before the project, but this had risen to 60.5% by the end of the project.

Additionally, 91.6% of surveyed partcipants reported they felt more healthy because of the project, while 78.7% reported they felt more confident because of the project.

BANNOCKBURN Boxing Club President William Tinlin has admitted he can’t underestimate how important it was to receive funding for his club.

The Boxing Scotland Eastern District club were successful in applying for a grant from the Third Sector Resilience Fund.

The country is currently on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has left boxing clubs such as Bannockburn with no income at this present time, despite there still being bills to pay.

William said: “I can’t play down the importance, it was vital to tell you the truth.

“We had just reformed the club in January and so we had virtually nothing at the moment.

“We had been doing a Bonus Ball once a fortnight and that gave us a little bit of money.

“But by the time we had to re-register all our boxers and coaches, any money we did have was in one hand and out the other.

“So this £600 is the first cushion we have been able to have for the club.

“As it stands, this will do us for a couple of months, so it is vital.

“We are pretty fortunate in the sense that we do not have our full rent at the moment.

“Our landlord has said that we can give what we can when we can, but this will help to give him some money to ensure the building is still there for us and to cover electricity bills.”

The Third Sector Resilience Fund is a £20m Emergency Fund for community groups and voluntary organisations, such as amateur boxing clubs, to apply for to keep themselves afloat during this pandemic; (https://scvo.org.uk/support/coronavirus/funding/scottish-government/third-sector-resilience-fund)

The Stirling-based club applied after seeing news of the fund on the Boxing Scotland website and William explained it was a straight-forward application process.

“As soon as Boxing Scotland put the article up on the website I clicked on the link,” William said.  

“There was an eligibility checker, and that told me straight away that I could go for the funding.

“It was brilliant that Boxing Scotland put that up, because up until then there was nothing out there for anybody.

“The more established clubs will be better placed to show the effects of this than we were, so they certainly shouldn’t be afraid to go for it.

“The form was simple and just asked for basic outgoings and a description of the club and why the grant is important.

“The people from the Corra Foundation were a great help, and the communication was really good with them also.”

If any other club would like assistance to apply to the Third Sector Resilience Fund, or any other assistance during this time, please contact your Boxing Scotland Regional Development Officer;

North District – Ben Holme, ben.holme@boxingscotland.org 07702 866135

East District – Stewart Ferguson, stewart.ferguson@boxingscotland.org 07944 598755

West District – Paul Coleman, paul.coleman@boxingscotland.org 07803 513699

SOUTHSIDE Boxing Academy are making sure they are still open to their community, even if their gym doors are locked for the time being.

The Boxing Scotland Western District club have been delivering a 10-week COVID-19 training programme via Zoom to members of their club and the wider community.

The club received funding via the Third Sector Resilience Fund to deliver the project, with one session taking place Monday-Friday for 10 weeks.

So far 46 participants have taken part in the training, with an average of 20 people participating in each class.

“It has been going excellent so far,” said Southside head coach Anton Quayle, who has been leading the sessions from his living room.

“We have opened it up to anybody, anyone who wants to come in and try is more than welcome.

“We have got a programme that we work to, we do a warm-up and then a strength session and then a technical session and a challenge towards the end.

“We are also empowering the Young Leaders within our club, we have two Young Leaders and one is taking the class on a Tuesday and the other is taking it on the Thursday.

“We will do it for the full 10 weeks, even if we can get in the club before then, as a lot of people might not want to come into a gym for a while, people will be cautious.”

Just as important as the boxing training sessions is the one that follows, as the Glasgow-based club hold an additional Zoom meeting to discuss the participants mental health.

“We then start up another Zoom for the kids to talk to them to see how they are for their mental health,” explained Anton, who admitted as a people-person the current lockdown situation has been tough.  

“I say to them, ‘I’ve not had a good day today, has anyone else not had a good day.’”

“Before you know it the kids are telling you they have had a hard day and are talking.

“We are part of the Scottish Mental Health organisation and so we are signed up to the charter.

“So that is something we do in the gym normally as when the kids come in the gym we do fist bump thumbs up or fist bump thumbs down to let us know how they are feeling.

“If they are thumbs down then I’ll pull them aside to have a wee chat to see what is up with them.

“I have had parents contacting me and telling me it is great that not only are we doing the Zoom boxing sessions, but that afterwards they have a place to go talk.

“We are constantly praising the kids and keeping them focused.”

In addition to the COVID-19 training programme, the £7,000 received from the Third Sector Resilience Fund will also help to ensure the club survives the current lockdown, with rent still due to pay despite the club being physically closed at the present moment.

This is a challenge shared by other boxing clubs across Scotland and Anton insisted the Fund was straightforward to apply to, with Glasgow City Boxing Club, Glasgow Phoenix Boxing Club and Hawick Boxing Club also receiving funding so far.

The Resilience Fund is a £20m Emergency Fund for community groups and voluntary organisations, such as amateur boxing clubs, to apply for to keep themselves afloat during this pandemic; (https://scvo.org.uk/support/coronavirus/funding/scottish-government/third-sector-resilience-fund)

“It only took 10 days from us applying for us to get the money,” said Anton.

“It was excellent for us to get that. We would have been struggling without that money.

“I think a lot of other clubs will be struggling if they are in the same boat as us.

“But we got money and Glasgow City got money, so it shows Boxing clubs will get money if you write the application right.

“There are a lot of clubs out there who would be able to get it.”

If any other club would like assistance to apply to the Third Sector Resilience Fund, or any other assistance during this time, please contact your Boxing Scotland Regional Development Officer;

North District – Ben Holme, ben.holme@boxingscotland.org 07702 866135

East District – Stewart Ferguson, stewart.ferguson@boxingscotland.org 07944 598755

West District – Paul Coleman, paul.coleman@boxingscotland.org 07803 513699