Welcome to Ian Ridgway - Our New Sports Development Director

Welcome to Ian Ridgway

Our new Sports Development Director

Last year a Sports Committee was formed to review how the school could further develop the Sports Department. One of the initiatives that came out of this review was to create a new role, the Sports Development Director. This role has been created to help lead the department and college in strategic planning and sponsorship, as well as developing and facilitating leadership programmes for emerging sports leaders, both students and adults. We were very lucky to secure Ian Ridgway to this role. In order to get to know a little bit about Ian we asked him the following questions…

Tell us about your background? Why did you choose teaching as a career and what has led you to where you are in your career now?

I first realised that teaching would be a huge part of my life when I was 17 years old and at college back in England. Learning how to coach various sports was a big part of my course, but it wasn’t until we started teaching groups of children from the local Special Needs School that I actually experienced a ‘goosebump’ moment where I knew this was where I needed to focus my passion and energy in helping young people fall in love with physical activity. I didn’t realise then that this would become my infinite purpose. That specific moment in time I remember as if it was yesterday. I had planned a lesson with a classmate which involved teaching the group of SEN children to simply catch and pass, this would then be expanded into a bigger fun game. I happened to spend a small amount of time working with a young girl who was wheelchair bound due to severe cerebral palsy. After 5 minutes of being unable to catch a medium sized soft ball, she finally caught the ball I had passed to her. The look and explosion of excitement and the sense of achievement that came from her gave me goosebumps that lasted a lifetime. When I arrived home later that day I told my parents that I had found my purpose and where I was heading, to be a teacher of Physical Education.

What were you doing prior to moving to Ōtūmoetai College?

Before heading to Ōtūmoetai College I was Head of High Performance Sport at Otahuhu College, Auckland. I spent three and a half years there working with a variety of sportsmen and women specifically enhancing their physical qualities required by the specific positions or events of their chosen sport. This was expanded to all students who just wanted to move and feel better about themselves and we delved into the importance of nutrition and recovery. While there I was also heavily involved in the coaching of rugby across the Rugby Academy and 1st XV. Before heading to Auckland I had returned home to England for a year with my wife and two children after spending ten years living and working in Hong Kong.

What is your role here at Ōtūmoetai College? What do you hope to achieve in this role?

My job title here at Ōtūmoetai College is Sports Development Director, from that you can reshuffle the

words to see my main role is to develop sport. Ōtūmoetai College has realistic aspirations to be one of the best co-educational sports schools within the Bay of Plenty. To do this a school needs a number of things in place to make this happen. For example, and certainly not limited to; excellent coaches, a clear coaching framework, development pathways for student-athletes, a wide range of sporting opportunities, regular opportunities for coach development and a sense of belonging and importance of sport and physical activity shared by the whole school community.

I hope to develop the love of being physically active. I would like to see a sports program that not only develops good sportsmen and women but also good people. A program that caters for those who are driven through the participation and success of sport and a program which also caters for those students who enjoy physical activity for very different reasons. Either way, students will leave Ōtūmoetai College with an array of personal qualities and accomplishments developed through physical activity and sport, along with a host of fond memories of their time at our school.

What do you like to do outside of school - i.e. sports, interests, family?

I’m a big believer that we all have an imaginary cup and how we fill that cup each day is up to us. Sometimes things will happen which inadvertently add to the cup in a way we may not have wanted but on a whole we can make decisions as to how and what we put in the cup. I try my very best to fill my cup with what makes me happy, what gives me a sense of purpose and a feeling that I know something at the end of the day that I didn’t know at the start. To fill my cup in this there are a few things that are non-negotiable that I will find time for each day; spend quality time with my family where they have 100% of my attention, exercise no matter what it looks like weight training/crossfit/walking/swimming - just do something, and read or listen to a podcast which makes me think, makes me question and that sparks conversation.

Some days the night will come closing in and on reflection I may have been able to add to my cup by helping someone, teaching someone a new skill or just having a really good conversation with someone. But then there are days where the cup isn’t quite as full as I’d like, and again spending some time reflecting at the end of the day why this might be and figuring out whether it was in my control or not. Keep topping up that cup.

A little known fact about you that people might find interesting?

According to the 23&me DNA testing kit I completed a few years ago I am related to the American outlaw of the late 1800’s Jesse James.