An Oldham student has been singled out for national recognition for driving transformational change within girls’ football in Oldham.
Laila Stanley, 16, claimed the Inspirational Female Leader award at the Youth Sport Trust Young Changemaker Awards held at St Ermin’s Hotel in Westminster.
Laila, a budding goalkeeper with Bolton Wanderers, won the award after setting up her own after-school football club and organising a borough-wide tournament which nine schools participated in.
After participating in the Barclays Girls’ Football School Game Changer programme by England Football, delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, Laila initiated a girls’ football club, coached her peers, and organised successful events. Including delivering an impressive speech to Year 7 girls which subsequently had dozens of girls wishing to sign up to her classes. She set up a snapchat group with all of the girls to ensure they knew when training was and what they would be working on, so the girls had a direct platform to ask any questions about training. Laila even interviewed and nominated her successors, sharing her passion and igniting the spark within others to realise that they too can play.
Laila’s infectious passion and dedication led to dramatically increased participation, leaving a legacy at her high school, Waterhead Academy, before moving on to Bolton College.
Upon winning the award, Laila said: “I’m over the moon and have been a bit overwhelmed, it doesn’t feel real.
“I wanted to be a goalkeeper but now I want to be a coach because I just love it and want to do it full time.
“Some of the people I coached ended up crying when I was leaving school, they were finding me to say one last goodbye and begging me to stay.”
A host of sporting stars presented awards to the seven winners including Dame Katherine Grainger, the first British woman to win medals at five successive Olympic games and seven-time Paralympic Champion Hannah Cockroft OBE, among a star-studded guest list.
Laila received her award from Harlequins Rugby player Shaunagh Brown. In response to Laila’s story Shaunagh said: “There are so many incredible young people out there, there is so much talent, we just need to celebrate it more often.
“Laila’s story is more than just an award it’s the experience of being recognised and being celebrated. Some days you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall and days like this spur you on to go a bit more and it really ignites the fire in someone’s belly.”
You can find out more about each of the winners and view their winners’ films on the Youth Sport Trust website here.
The Young Changemaker Awards were preceded by an announcement earlier in the day that Sir Mo Farah has partnered with the charity as their new National School Sport Champion. Together, the Youth Sport Trust and Sir Mo launched Mo’s Mission to ensure that all young people are active in line with the UK Chief Medical Officer’s recommended minimum of ‘60 minutes a day – of PE, Sport and Play’.
Mo’s Mission is underpinned by the Youth Sport Trust’s new manifesto for change which sets out five key recommendations to create a nation of active and well schools which give every child the chance to be active for at least 60 minutes day.
You can read more about Mo’s Mission and the Youth Sport Trust manifesto here.
