Rick Kenney, Vice Chair of ClubSport Ettrick and Lauderdale was recently elected as the new Chair of Scottish ClubSport at their Annual Conference and AGM on Saturday 7th November, which was held virtually due to the Covid pandemic.
With a membership of 36 local sports councils and ClubSport networks across Scotland, Scottish ClubSport represents a membership of 3,000 sports clubs, organisations and individual members collectively. Covering 22 Local Authority areas, the Scottish ClubSport membership represents clubs from 53 different sports. From the smallest with 19 members to the largest with 310 members, the landscape of ClubSport networks and Sports Councils is unique to each of the local areas.
Rick Kenney made his career in sport and leisure for some 40 years, working as Assistant Director of Leisure Services at Motherwell District Council; Director of Leisure & Community Support Services at Inverclyde Council; CEO of JudoScotland and Sport & Recreation Manager with Scottish Borders Council, retiring in July 2011.
A qualified physical education teacher with an MBA degree, Rick is a former two-term Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland involved in the bid process for Glasgow 2014. Rick was Scottish Assistant General Team Manager at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Melbourne 2006 and Depute General Team Manager at Manchester in 2002 and is currently President of the Commonwealth Judo Association and Vice President of JudoScotland.
A 7th Dan in judo, Rick is a former multiple Scottish and British Champion and competed for many years in both judo and wrestling. After retiring he coached many judo players over the years and was the Coach to the successful judo team at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990 when judo made its first appearance in the Games. He was given life membership of Judo Scotland in 2012.
He is currently involved in a number of Borders sports groups - Chair of the Borders Athlete Support Programme; Chair of ClubSport Borders, the umbrella group for the 4 local ClubSport groups; Chair of the Borders Elite Swim Team (BEST) and is a Director of Volunteer Centre Borders. He was the ClubSport Ettrick & Lauderdale SALSC Service to Sport Award winner in 2013; received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Scottish Ethnic Minority Sports Association in 2017 and was the recipient of the Scottish Borders Celebration of Sport Award for Services to Sport in 2018.
Rick has been a member of local sports councils in Hamilton, Motherwell, Inverclyde and the Scottish Borders since 1982 and is currently Vice Chair of ClubSport Ettrick and Lauderdale in the Scottish Borders. Rick was recently awarded an OBE for services to judo.
Scottish ClubSport aims to expand this membership into new Local Authority areas and will work with relevant partners to implement the ClubSport framework where relevant. Scottish ClubSport works in partnership with sportscotland, Sports Specific Governing Bodies, Local Authorities and Leisure Trusts and other national and local partners to evolve the existing membership further, whilst expanding into new areas.
The Scottish ClubSport network is designed to give sport at a local level the strongest voice possible when influencing local decision makers. Representing local sport clubs and volunteers, the unique political connections originally established by the Sports Council model will be built on going forward.
For further information or to get involved with Scottish ClubSport and it`s members, please contact NDM@scottishclubsport.co.uk for more information.
Alternatively, you can visit https://www.scottishclubsport.co.uk
Login to the members area
Join Scottish ClubSport