Fitness Starts With Us

An interview with Galway’s New Sports Development Officer

By Sandra Bunting

Galway’s first sports development officer has settled into his new job after taking up the position in April. His arrival has been greatly applauded as for a long time local sports groups have been asking for someone to co-ordinate sporting groups and facilities and to encourage more physical activity in the city.
In the few months that Jason Craughwell has been in the job, he has accomplished a lot. Focusing in bringing attention to what we do have he said:
“Galway already has a lot of facilities. People just don’t know about them.”
Mr. Craughwell’s plan is two-fold:
• To support competitive and structured sport
• To focus on the fun aspect of sport, the pure enjoyment of it
Recognising that Galway is fortunate in having a lot of people putting time into structured clubs, he aims to develop the more informal side to physical activity. To this end he is hoping to encourage volunteers to set up other clubs for sports and physical fitness by training games leaders and coaches who can learn skills and bring them back to the community.
A lot can be done very simply. There are many open areas in estates.
“These are the places where kids can start getting physical activity through various games,” he said.
A website will soon provide information on what’s available in Galway in terms of clubs and other forms of physical activity. This will also include the arts as complementary to sports, especially areas such as modern dance which is active and physically demanding.
Already he has managed to secure €3000 worth of equipment through RAPID. This is divided into 5 kits or RAPS (recreation, activity and play bags) which contain footballs, basketballs, tennis equipment, hockey sticks, bean bags and soft balls to name a few. With one RAP in each of the 5 RAPID areas in the city, the idea is to make physical activity more fun and more inclusive. Any community group can sign it out. Therefore it is hoped that participation will increase. For example, there is the competitive rugby and the fun tag rugby, competitive soccer and ‘five aside’. In one the emphasis is on winning; on the other, winning is important but the social and entertainment aspects also highly considered.
Galway will soon have a government-funded sports partnership. At the moment there are 16 in the country and it is hoped to have one in every county and major city by the year 2008. Initially it will exist for three years at which time it will be reviewed.
In the meantime, besides providing support to members of the community interested in training, a series of workshops with all sports groups were held in November to set out objectives of the future sports partnership over the next two to three years. We are awaiting the results of a sports and recreation needs analysis
Jason Craughwell is not a stranger to what this city needs in terms of encouragement for sport and physical activity. A native of Athlone, he has worked in Galway in the fitness industry and had family connections to the city centre. With a degree in Health, Fitness, Leisure and Physical Education at the IT, Tralee, he has 8-10 level one coaching qualifications allowing him to coach a broad spectrum of sports. He was involved in athletics and gymnastics and played rugby and a little soccer.
With the help of the community and the encouragement and support of our new Sports Development Officer, Galway is hopefully on the way to being fitter and with a more positive attitude towards sport and physical activity.


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