It's National Boccia Day today and we want to tell you all about the Shetland Boccia Club!
Boccia was played in Shetland long before the club was officially formed in 2022. A number of our clubs and schools would play across Shetland. In 2020, Malcolm took 1st place in the Christmas Boccia competition at the Adult Rec Club.
2022 was a huge milestone year with the club's first athlete, Leona, heading off island to represent Shetland at the Perth and Kinross Boccia Competition.
The following year the club stepped up their game and travelled to two competitions. The first was the Scottish Disability Sport National School Boccia Competition where four young people were selected to represent Shetland in Stirling following the Shetland Secondary School competition. The second was in Dundee at the Discovery Games where five athletes competed.
Also in 2023, the club deployed their boccia leaders across schools in Shetland in collaboration with the Active Schools team. Since 2023, the boccia leaders have managed to deliver sessions in schools to over 100 pupils across 9 schools. They are continuing their work in 2024 and are starting to target community groups and day centres to enable everyone to have the opportunity to try this amazing inclusive sport. With the help of Active Schools, the club now holds an annual Shetland Secondary School Competition and a Boccia Festival for Primary Schools.
Shetland Boccia Club held their first competition in 2022 with Keira winning the title. In 2023, we had more than double the participants from 2022 with 24 people competing to win the trophy. Julie managed to take home the win in the final. The clubs 2024 competition is on the 20th of October Clickimin Leisure Complex and registration is still open.
A big thank you to the Shetland Junior Intercounty 2023 for inviting the club along to do a demonstration of what boccia is.
We can't speak about boccia and not speak about the Scottish Disability Sport National Schools Competition 2024. We had five young people compete and Shetland achieved their highest ever finishes with Harrison narrowing missing out on a bronze medal in a tie break end and Jamie putting in a stellar performance to make the Quarter Finals in both their respective categories.
We can't wait to see what's next for the club.
Want to be part of the Boccia story? Come along to our weekly boccia club.
