Coach Core Awards 2026
Find out who won the Awards celebrating Coach Core people and organisations in 2025
The Coach Core Awards bring together apprentices, graduated apprentices and their employers, as well as supporters and other partners, to celebrate and highlight everything that makes Coach Core special.
The 2026 ceremony celebrated the best of our programmes across the country over the previous year. This year saw the evolution of the awards. The Employer Award was split into two categories to better reflect the range of organisations we work with: the Breakthrough Award, recognising employers new to Coach Core, and the Sustained Award, celebrating those who have supported apprentices and programme growth year after year.
We also diversified our Apprentice Awards to reflect the different levels of achievement apprentices reach across their journey. These included Growth, recognising outstanding personal or professional development; Impact, celebrating apprentices who have made a meaningful difference to others; and Spotlight, highlighting exceptional leadership or standout contribution to a specific project or piece of work.
While 2025 was a year of celebration, it was also a year of loss. We sadly lost three valued members of the Coach Core community: Aziz, a mentor with Palace for Life; Roman, a talented young apprentice with ATF in Essex; and Scott, a graduate who truly embodied everything Coach Core stands for. Scott didn’t just benefit from the programme- he gave back to it, inspired others, and helped grow our community. In his honour, the Graduate of the Year Award has been renamed the Scott Cooper Award.
The 2026 ceremony took place on February 3 at London City Hall. They were hosted by CEO and Co-Founder Gary Laybourne and former England netballer and Coach Core board member Eboni Usoro-Brown.
The winners chosen from the worthy finalists were as follows:
This award celebrates a Coach Core apprentice whose leadership on a particular piece of work or project deserves to be highlighted.
Billie Jean Goodyer
Bradford Bulls Foundation (West Yorkshire)
Through the support of Coach Core, Billie has made significant personal and professional progress, leading sessions confidently across multiple sports. She has gone on to secure the role of Head Coach of the Bradford Bulls Luvabulls cheer group, demonstrating strong leadership, communication and the ability to mentor other coaches. Her journey reflects both her resilience and her commitment to inspiring others.
This award celebrates a Coach Core apprentice who has shown outstanding personal or professional development.
Nick Greenslade
Freedom Leisure (Essex)
Nick has shown remarkable resilience and growth throughout his apprenticeship, overcoming significant personal and learning barriers to become a confident, capable community coach. Through determination and hard work, he has developed his session planning and delivery skills, grown in confidence, and now leads inclusive physical activity sessions across care homes, Sporting Memories programmes, and major events. Nick’s kindness, patience, and ability to connect with people of all ages have had a lasting impact on participants, colleagues, and the wider community. His journey is a powerful example of how, with the right support and opportunity, barriers can be overcome and lives can be changed.
This award celebrates a graduated Coach Core apprentice who has made a meaningful difference to others – whether that’s within their workplace, peer group, or wider community
Isabel Green
Fit4Sport (National)
Izzy has grown from a quiet apprentice into a confident, trusted Community Sport & Health Officer who leads with empathy and professionalism. She now independently plans and delivers inclusive sessions across schools, holiday camps and community projects, adapting her communication to support children, families and asylum seekers. Izzy has led full holiday camps, redesigned sessions under pressure, and doubled participation in girls’ football through positive female role-modelling. Balancing full-time work, study and a professional football career with West Bromwich Albion Ladies First Team, she demonstrates outstanding resilience, discipline and leadership. Izzy embodies the spirit of Coach Core turning passion into meaningful community impact and inspiring others through quiet, consistent leadership.
This award celebrates a graduated Coach Core apprentice who has gone on to achieve remarkable things since their programme finished.
Rhys Gordon
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(Birmingham
When Rhys began his apprenticeship, he was passionate about sport but lacked confidence in his own ability, often saying he wanted to give others the belief he once lacked. Over the past year, that quiet determination has developed into strong leadership, confidence, and professional competence, with parents regularly commenting on how their children leave sessions feeling “proud of themselves”.
Rhys’ journey has been shaped by resilience, losing his father at 18 deeply influenced his sense of purpose and inspired his commitment to helping others through positive action. Having grown up feeling overlooked and without consistent support, alongside life experiences such as living in Bulgaria, Rhys now brings empathy, adaptability, and a strong sense of community to his work.
Despite early challenges with academic confidence , he has embraced reflection and mentoring, turning setbacks into learning and becoming a compassionate, self-aware coach whose story is one of purpose, growth, and transformation.
This award celebrates an individual in an organisation that employs a Coach Core apprentice who has surpassed expectations in supporting their apprentice(s).
Bashir Dad & Zain Khan
Our Community Foundation (Birmingham)
When medical appointments risked interrupting study, Bashir and Zain coordinated flexible schedules with Lifetime Training to support their apprentices. This approach delivered remarkable results: Haider gained his first qualification, and his mother called it “the happiest she’s ever been.” He now mentors children whose improved behaviour has helped halve school incidents.
OCF applies the same compassion to Muhammad, who receives structured peer mentoring from Haider and oversight from Zain. Weekly reflection sessions help him understand delivery standards, safeguarding and commun
ication early on. Beyond apprentices, Bash and Zain also mentor volunteers from some of East Birmingham’s most deprived wards, supporting those who arrive unemployed or without qualifications to build confidence and progress into accredited courses or employment.
Celebrating an organisation that’s made an immediate and powerful impact in their first year with Coach Core
Snowcamp
(National)
Snow Camp has made an outstanding impact in its first year with Coach Core by embedding apprentices seamlessly into its workforce and embracing the programme’s values from day one. Their mission (to provide snowsport opportunities to underrepresented and at-risk young people) naturally aligns with Coach Core’s focus on social mobility and inclusion.
What makes Snow Camp exceptional is how they’ve created a pathway where former programme participants can return as apprentices, delivering the very sessions they once benefited from. From the outset, Snow Camp has provided comprehensive support for apprentices through structured onboarding, team integration days, and access to specialist qualifications, including ski and snowboard instructor certifications.
Recognising a long-standing employer who has consistently demonstrated high-quality delivery across multiple cohorts
Leicester City in the Community
(Leicester)
Over six years, Leicester City in the Community’s apprenticeship approach has evolved from a single entry-level opportunity into a comprehensive, multi-level workforce development model that now underpins how the organisation recruits, trains and retains its people. What began as a small pilot to engage local young people has become a strategic, evidence-driven pathway that transforms both individuals and the organisation itself.
Early programmes focused on coaching experience and building confidence. Since then, LCitC has systematically refined its delivery, strengthening recruitment, induction, mentoring and CPD based on apprentice and staff feedback. Each cohort is reviewed in detail, with learning used to improve support for the next
This award celebrates someone in the Coach Core network who has made a significant contribution to our mission, has demonstrated Coach Core values and deserves to be recognised for their support and dedication to the programme
Mel Chell and James Lovett
(The Leasing Foundation)
The Leasing Foundation Board have shown exceptional behind-the-scenes dedication and support that has made
a real difference to Coach Core this year. They were the first organisation ever to commit to a two-year partnership, demonstrating a deep belief in our mission to support young people facing barriers.
What sets them apart is their proactive, entrepreneurial mindset. They are always looking for new ways to help opening doors, identifying opportunities, and amplifying our work without ever seeking recognition. They go well beyond the us
ual expectations of a charity partner, consistently offering their time, networks, creativity, and encouragement to strengthen Coach Core’s work and support our apprentices.
Their positive energy, reliability, and genuine passion for helping others make them a pleasure to work with. Their contribution often happens quietly, but the impact on our team, programme, and young people is significant and lasting
Learn about all the nominees
Our Sponsor
Lifetime Training are proud sponsors of Coach Core Awards.
Lifetime Training provides cutting edge skills training, designed to help people exceed their potential and give businesses the ultimate competitive advantage.
"In its 9th year, our annual Coach Core Awards was our biggest and most inspiring yet! Taking place in the iconic City Hall, home of the London Mayor, the room was once more taken on a journey of inspiring young people, brilliant employers and the emotive journeys of those key mentors and educators that have made it all possible.
At a time where the levels of youth unemployment continue to rise, and the economic climate for small businesses in particular is incredibly tough, these amazing individuals continue to show us what can be overcome and what can be achieved if we are motivated to change the narrative and work collaboratively to achieve that. The team and I are so proud of todays winners and nominees, particularly those inspiring young people who ensure we remain focused on supporting the next generation of Coach Core apprentices realise their potential too
A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the apprentices in 2025 and to the young people that have the bravery and motivation to take the Coach Core opportunity with both hands to not only change their lives, but positively change the lives around them too."
