Private School News

Clubmark status for 2 DASH athletics club

A Derbyshire athletics club is celebrating after picking up a national excellence award.

2 DASH (Derbyshire and South Yorkshire Harriers), which is based at Mount St Mary’s College, Spinkhill, has achieved Clubmark status – the national standard for high quality sports provision for young people.

Part-funded by Coalfields Regeneration Trust grants, the club was set up in 2007 to cater for Under 13s to 17s from the school and wider community and uses Mount St Mary’s class 1 certified stadium and equipment.

It now boasts more than 100 members made up of students and other youngsters from the South Yorkshire and Derbyshire areas who meet twice a week to take part in a range of track and field events.

Keith Newton, a level 4 coach at Mount St Mary’s who runs 2 DASH, said: “This award is recognition for the tremendous amount of hard work that has gone into setting up 2 DASH and making it such a huge success in only a short period of time. It is one of the fastest moves towards Clubmark status by an athletics club in this country.

“The club was established to cater for our school pupils but also to serve the local community at a grass roots level. In just two years we have gone from a single coach and 18 members to over 150 people training with us under the guidance of 14 coaches.”

2 DASH was promoted to the North East Division of the National Youth Athletics League in its first season of competition and is now holding its own against the likes of the City of York and Lord Sebastian Coe’s old club the Hallamshire Harriers.

It also has satellite clubs at four local schools – Westfield, Eckington, Springwell and Netherthorpe, which run 12-week training programmes and competitions for students and feed into 2 DASH.

Keith added: “The satellite clubs are a way of bringing athletics to the community. They are all inclusive and we welcome members of all abilities from these clubs to our weekly sessions at Mount Stadium. They are hugely popular and a great way for us to develop positive links with the local community and ensure that physical activity is accessible to all.”

Photo caption: (L-R) 2 DASH member Niall Hunt, coach Keith Newton and one of the club’s newest recruits Gemma Smalley.