Interview with Sportsman/Women winners

Interview with Sam Potts and Yasmin Parsons. Portsmouth Sportsman/women of the year awards.

Sam receiving his award from Fred Dinenage

On Monday 11^th February 2013 Ferneham Hall held the 11^th Portsmouth Sportsman/Women of the Year Awards. There were different categories such as Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, Young Sportsmen and Pompey Player of the Year. Sophie Webb spoke to the Sportsman of the Year winner, Sam Potts and Sports Women of the Year, Yasmin Parsons about their specific sports and how it felt to win such a great award.

Sam Potts is twenty years old and lives in Warsash, Southampton. He started judo at a young age where he went along with a friend to try out the sport. He has now been fighting for sixteen years and has achieved three British Championships, representing Britain three times in the Youth Olympics and is currently number one in the under 90kg category for Great Britain.

Yas representing England

Yasmin Parsons is nineteen years old and lives in Fareham, Portsmouth. She started netball at the age of ten when she was encouraged by her mother to play for her junior school. This then lead her to play for her local club Fareham Firefly’s where she played in the Hampshire Youth Games. Here she met England defender Geva Mentor who inspired her and became her ultimate role model. Yaz now plays for England u21’s and has been on tour to Australia and was even selected for the Great Britain BUCS UNI squad where she competed in South Africa and Won Gold.

Yasmin signing autographs after a match

Sam was nominated for this award by his local home club ‘Gosport Judo Kwai, whereas Yaz was put forward as a non person but she does not know why or who this was by as it has remained hidden. However she has been mentioned a lot in the Portsmouth News as well as the Goal Attack section which has certainly publicised her achievements. Sam was up against some top athletes including runner up Ben Haines who competes for Great Britain in Taekwondo. Whereas Yaz was up against football players, runners and hockey players.

 Leading up to this event nominations were published daily in the Portsmouth News along with how the public could vote for their choice. Both Yaz and Sam also used social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to inform their followers on how to vote in a bid to try and gain extra support from friends and family.

Fred Dinenage hosted the awards and many sporting celebrities such as Steve Redgrave and some of the Para Olympics team attended to receive awards as well as some MBE’s.

Sam after winning a fight

Winning the award means so much to both performers as it means that the public recognise their hard work and achievements supporting them both in their sports. It also publicises their talent making people aware of whom they are as well as their sports and can be a great help in receiving potential sponsorships.

Both Sam and Yaz are at Bath University studying ‘Sports Performance’ which is a flexible course that allows them to train continuously and play their sport alongside it. Sam trains on average twenty-one hours a week which is split into two to three sessions a day ranging from weights to endurance work.

He also has to make sure he keeps his diet healthy to help his body cope with all of the training. He also has to make sure his diet is balanced and remains steady as when he fights he has to weigh under 90kg.

Yaz also trains a lot everyday waking up at 7am to start her two sessions a day ranging from plyometrics to weights. She also has England training on a Monday followed by Super league. She also has BUC matches on a Tuesday evening and netball matches at the weekend. She also has to follow a specific diet that caters for her needs. She needs to keep her energy levels high and is not allowed to eat sugar, takeaways and chocolate. She also has to hand-prepare all of her food to control what she eats and its quantities.

It is evident that both athletes have a lot of support from their family. Both Sam and Yaz spoke of how they couldn’t be where they are today without the financial support and encouragement their families have given them from the very beginning. As both of them aren’t necessarily getting paid directly for their sport there are schemes set up to help top athletes financially.

Sam receives financial funding from the TASS (Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme), the HTAS (Hampshire Talented Athletes Scheme) and gets a lot of his funding for the international competitions and training camps he has to do from British Judo which helps him out a lot. Similarly Yaz has a scholarship for her University course which is supported by Jeff Trendell. As Yaz now plays in the under 21s squad for England she is entitled to receive expenses which help her with travel, kit etc. Last year she was also sponsored by ‘ASDA Athletes’ which she hopes to do again this year to get netball promoted further.

Sam is due to fight in the English Open at the beginning of March which is preparation for the Portuguese European Cup in mid March. His future goals are to represent Great Britain in the 2016 Olympics and to continue this for two Olympics afterwards as well as being ‘World Champion’ one day. Sam wants to continue fighting and training as a career as he believes he has at least ten years left in him to compete.

During a fight

Yaz wants to be selected for the U21’s ‘World Youths ‘ this August to represent England again. In the future she wants to continue playing netball to a high standard but also wants to be a Junior School teacher and help to support PE in all schools. Her aim is to get children involved in netball to help make it become widely recognised in society.

Yaz during a match

When asked if any of them have any weird superstitions or funny routines, Sam mentioned only having one jumper that he will wear to warm up before fights. He will not wear any other jumper as he regards this specific jumper as his ‘lucky one’. Yaz has to have her shoe laces dead straight and not twisted on her trainers before she can go out on court. She also has to wear her hair dead straight and up in a ponytail to keep it out of her face.

A regular position on the podium for Sam

Images courtesy of Sam and Yasmin.