I am head coach of Athena Angels gymnastics club and Athena Allstars cheerleading club, I plan, deliver and maintain all sessions within our club from 3-18 years old, recently developing a young leadership coaching programme within our gymnastics club. During lockdown the SPORTS collective was created by a group of likeminded individuals who wanted to come together and create a learning space within schools for developing the younger generation of coaches. This bought together many coaches from specialist backgrounds to deliver state of the art lessons!

From when I could remember I was always helping others develop within sport. This started when I was a gymnast myself and would encourage my friends during lessons, and wanted to see them succeed more than myself!

Swiftly moving onto college where I studied sports science. My course was heavily male dominated with only 3 girls on the course out of 20. This made the fire ignite more, knowing 'this is what I wanted to do' at the age of 16 I found a PE teacher apprenticeship at my local primary school and swiftly started moving up the ladder there. Again, the PE teachers were mostly male and I would often have to shout louder, coach better and express myself more to be heard over everyone. I was soon known as the loudest teacher - which I'm still proud to have this name today!

I went onto uni to study a degree in primary education and working with children and young people. This is where my career swiftly moved into teaching. Despite this, I knew I still wanted to be creative during my coaching as thinking of new fun drills is where my heart is at! Project 500 called out to me because 15/16 year old Morgan would've really benefited from a background of all female coaches, this would've made me more confident in myself rather than comparing myself to a man. I hope to pass on this knowledge and expertise I have learnt along the way and share it with you all!

If you're a coach, aspiring coach, leader or volunteer in the leisure, physical activity or sports sector, join our movement to get more women coaching and readdress the gender imbalance! Sign up here.