MILNSBRIDGE postman Rob Dyson is a real champion when it comes to football.
At least that’s the view of the children who he teaches at the after-school soccer club he runs at Crow Lane Junior and Infant School.
The pupils love the club so much that one of them – nine-year-old Tommas Hamilton – nominated Mr Dyson for a Children’s Champion award.
The awards are run by the News of the World, in conjunction with children’s charity Barnardo’s and the Post Office. They celebrate people who work to improve children’s lives in different ways.
Mr Dyson, 33, of Botham Hall Road, has run the club for four years. He said he was thrilled to have been nominated, and added: “I was shocked and then pleased to have been appreciated.”
He set up the football club at Crow Lane when his nephew and seven-year-old son Ben started at the school and he realised there was no after-school football for them to play.
A former pupil himself, Mr Dyson remembered the days when the school had an 11-a-side team.
He created a team, organised competitive matches with other schools and even paid for a Player of the Week medal out of his own pocket.
Mr Dyson said: “I love football. I started the club because of my son and nephew and I do it for nothing but the love of the game. I have someone who helps me now too.
“I believe that sport should be in school and after school. There is a big move to get kids active and you need clubs for them to go to. They also need a bit of competition. As long as they enjoy it, it doesn’t matter if they win or lose. The kids love it.”
Tommas, who nominated Mr Dyson in the Post Office sponsored awards category, said: “Rob comes into school to teach us and makes us laugh. He gets us to do our best.”
Shaun Nicholson, head of PE at Crow Lane, said Mr Dyson’s input into sports at the school has been invaluable.
“We don’t get funding for football activities so if Rob wasn’t doing it, it probably wouldn’t happen.
“He gets nothing for it, except a gesture from the school every year.
“Rob will do anything as far as sport goes. He gives up his own time and it’s definitely popular with the children.”
Mr Dyson will find out in March whether he is a winner in the Children’s Champion awards.
Judges include the Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown, sports stars Lord Sebastian Coe and Dame Kelly Holmes and TV actresses Amanda Holden and Roxanne Pallett.
In the meantime, Mr Dyson will be continuing with his football club – and is even starting a cricket club too.
He said he has no idea how long he will continue. “My son will be there for three more years, I have a four-year-old and another on the way, so who knows?”
