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Isaac’s Boccia Achievements and Everybody Awards
My name is Isaac, I am 14 years old and my favourite hobby is Boccia.
Boccia is similar to bowls but it is indoors and you sit down. You have to try and get your Boccia balls close to your opponent’s balls and the jack.
I started playing Boccia in year 7 and my P.E. teacher asked if I wanted to be team captain when I played it at lunch times. Then I got into the team school competitions and me and my team came first in that year. Because we won, we went onto compete in the county tournament. We came second that time and went onto play the school regionals in Liverpool. We lost the quarter final match which I was disappointed about as we were then out of the tournament.
In the following year (2017/18), I played in a tournament but I didn’t get through and in 2018 I went off ill. In the meantime, my P.E. teacher sent me information about how to get tickets to go and see a Boccia tournament in Liverpool and it turned out to be the World Championship of Boccia. At this point, I was speechless and was intrigued to find out more. I went inside the building and straight away the Boccia UK camera team were asking the audience for interviews and I got chosen to take part in a university video about sport. However, to this day I have yet to find this video!
There were 20 to 30 people watching the tournament, including me and my dad and I saw the 32 countries coming out for the opening ceremony including Great Britain, Greece and Canada.
When I was speaking to someone at the tournament, they recommended someone to take me into their club. I spoke to them and I am now part of Greenbank Giants Boccia team. The next day they invited me to lead out Great Britain in the closing ceremony of the World Championships. An official photo of me is now on their Twitter page!
Since then, I took part in the 2018 Heathcoat Cup but sadly I was losing 8-0 and I came last. So on the following Monday I practised at Greenbank Giants and I kept improving. This year at Heathcoat 2019 my first match was against the King of Boccia who everyone is scared of. He is roughly 60-70 years old and has been playing Boccia since 1984 at the Paralympic Games. I was so nervous and it was constantly on my mind. It was a tough game. I tried my hardest and I won 3-2. On my second game, I won 4-2 and 7-4 in the third match. On my final match, my opposition had won all his previous matches as did I and last year I lost against him 13-0 so I was really cautious and wanted to win this match this time. I played my hardest and won 5-3.
I then went to play in the semi-final but sadly lost 3-4 so I was then up against him again and was winning 4-2 and then I realised that I’d dropped one of my balls which counts as a dead ball so my opposition played his 5 balls but I still beat him 4-3. This made me really happy and that evening I had an email to say that I had qualified for the National Finals 2020!
I feel like I’ve really achieved something and since then I was nominated and became the runner up at the 2019 Everybody Awards for the ‘Disability Sports Achiever of the Year 2019’ Award.
I am waiting to see what happens in April 2020 to see if I can get higher on the Top 24 Boccia player list.
Isaac’s mum tells us more!
The award that Isaac was nominated for this year was organised by Everybody Sport and Recreation who have 15 leisure clubs across Cheshire East. He came runner up at the awards evening at Crewe Hall for ‘Disabled Sports Achiever of the Year 2019’.
In the photo, Isaac is standing with the host of the award Ceremony-Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Isaac was recognised as a person who has despite injury and pain persisted with the sport he plays. Isaac began his Boccia journey in year 7 when he was invited to captain the school Boccia team. He continued this role throughout Key Stage 3. However, during this period Isaac underwent a major surgery to his feet, which left him reliant upon a wheelchair and walking aids for over 18 months. Whilst off school, recovering, PE teacher Mr Jewitt encouraged Isaac to go and watch the Boccia World Championships, held in Liverpool in August 2018. It was from here that Isaac’s love for Boccia began to grow. Through a series of fortunate encounters, Isaac was invited to lead out Team GB at the closing ceremony and was able to meet with World Champion, David Smith. Following this experience, Isaac was asked to play for Greenbank Giants in Liverpool. Isaac would like to thank his Physio, Ruth for nominating him for this award.
On Sunday 20th October he played in the Boccia England Northwest competition and won the Bronze Medal for Boccia Classification 6 in the Northwest of England Region. He won 6 of 7 matches played and this was a massive achievement for him!
