East Kilbride Handball Club will mark their 50th anniversary later this year, but have honoured a man who made it all happen – and has been involved for 44 of those years.
Stalwart Michael Lavery was recently presented with a lifetime achievement award for services to handball in East Kilbride and Scotland by club captain Benjy Muir and Great Britain international Jack Lees, who both came through the primary school training programme that Michael created.
Joining the club in 1978 as a junior, Michael was told he was one of the most gifted players a coach had ever seen, after just one training session.
Lavery made his junior debut within weeks and was very quickly called up to the Scotland under-16 squad.
By the age of 16, Michael was playing in the East Kilbride first team, and had graduated to Scotland under-18s.
Three years later, he had won the Scottish and British leagues with EK, played in the European Cup, and was selected for Great Britain.
While Michael went on to play for Scotland several times over the years, self-funding, work commitments and family life took its toll and he dropped out of the Great Britain set-up.
A few years later when East Kilbride Handball Club had folded, Michael and a few friends rebooted the club to restart a junior section.
Almost 20 years later, several of those kids are now playing adult handball and representing Scotland and Great Britain.
And that has not gone unnoticed with Michael being recognised.
After receiving the award, Michael said: “We had a few adults and cobbled together a team to play in the Scottish league.
“We were losing every game and I thought we needed to go back to basics and make this a long-term strategy.
“From there, I contacted my own children’s primary school and offered some handball taster sessions, which soon escalated to all the primary schools in EK.
“We had festivals and pretty soon the club was bursting at the seams.
“I started school leagues to make it competitive and soon after we had junior teams in the Scottish leagues.”
This season the men’s senior team reached the British play-offs, with 90 per cent of the squad a direct result of the primary schools’ programme.
All the work Michael did for the club was on a voluntary basis, while holding down a full-time job, but he is now employed by Scottish Handball and EK Handball Club.
Michael, who has been selected to represent Scotland Masters in Finland next year, added: “I now have a lot more help than when I first started, and couldn’t have achieved much without the input of many people throughout the years.
“Without mentioning everyone, I’ll just say you know who you are, and ‘thank you very much’.”
EK Handball Club have training sessions from ages seven to adults of any age. If you are interested in joining, contact michael.ek82handball@gmail.com.
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