Omar

Sports and Coaching

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Please provide the name of the initiative cause and how long have you been involved?

I have been an avid football player and fan of my childhood team, Pembroke Hamilton Club (PHC) (Affiliated charity #727 – PHC Foundation) since I was seven years old and for nearly 40 years. I began when the youngest age group was the under 11s, so I had to wait a few years to make the team. In the interim, I committed myself to the club at training sessions and have done so in various ways throughout the years.

Why did you choose to support it?

PHC has a strong relationship with the community. Its core values and drivers include community service, family support, confidence building, academic improvement and inspiring happiness in a low-cost and safe zone.

Overall, what is the charitable organisation’s mission and how does it make a difference to the people/cause it aims to help?

An underlying mandate of PHC is to encourage, promote and engage its members, their families and the community in sports, educational and other recreational activities, enhancing the quality of life through community engagement.

Over the decades, we have aimed to build a culture of community service through various events, initiatives and contributions. Doing this has reaped rewards for PHC in the form of talented and committed volunteers, which are the foundation of our programme’s success. We can humbly boast that, for over two decades, in any given year, the vast majority of the active coaching volunteers have either played through our youth ranks, our senior team or both and have decided to give back to the club in the same way. PHC instituted a requirement for its coaches to be CPR and First Aid certified and receive SCARS training, which the club fully covers. This has also helped us support our public service principles.

Furthermore, PHC has long recognised the mental, social and physiological benefits of sports, which can often be overlooked in youth sports. Examples of our focus on these pillars include training on team politics, appropriate behaviour amongst players, reasons for taking the field (i.e., interest and drivers) and a positive diet and lifestyle, to name a few. Common values are promoted across all age groups and supported throughout a player’s formal education. They help players develop critical thinking and become productive adults. Players are encouraged and expected to consistently demonstrate good sportsmanship, a positive attitude and respect for the parents/spectators, referees, club officials, coaches, opponents and each other.

What is your specific contribution to the initiative/cause and how have you made an impact to the people/cause it aims to help?

PHC has always been committed to supporting the community and encourages its players to do the same. Consequently, I (and many others) have a lifelong commitment to PHC and our community due to our participation in various roles as a youth and senior player, youth and senior team coach, club member, and volunteer. One of my volunteer roles includes being the Chairperson of PHC’s Technical Development Committee; the role oversees all facets of the club’s youth football program, which ranges from ages under five’s through to its senior team. Additionally, I’ve contributed to PHC by leading teams in specific projects and efforts relating to charitable donations and marketing campaigns, with my personal contribution encompassing a host of roles and responsibilities throughout.

How does your charitable involvement align with the BMA’s core values?

At PHC, we strive to build the character of every one of our members and, through our programs, produce experiences that have had, and will continue to have, a positive effect on our community. I believe this sentiment aligns with the BMA’s mandates relating to staff engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion.