Forty years, and we're only just getting started

Two kids who never sat still

We’ve been mates for more than forty years. Before the business, before the coaching, before any of it, we were two lads who couldn’t sit still. Out on our bikes, football in the street until the streetlights came on, making a game out of anything.

Being active wasn’t a programme back then. It was just life. And somewhere in all of it, without ever noticing, we learned the thing we’ve spent the rest of our lives on: that moving, playing and being part of something makes you happy.

A belief we built a business on

Twenty years ago we turned that into a business. Two mates and a belief: that every child deserves the chance to move, play and be the best they can be.

We didn’t have much of a plan beyond that belief. It turned out to be enough to build twenty years on.

Then we had our own kids

Everything changed when we became dads.

Suddenly it wasn’t other people’s children, it was ours. You want your own kids to be active, confident, safe and happy. You want the grown-ups around them to be good people. You want someone to spot the quiet one, include the one who finds it hard, and celebrate the one who simply tried.

That is when this stopped being a job and became the thing we care most about after our own families. Every child we work with, we see our own.

We’ve sat on the other side of the table

Between us we’ve been coaches, leaders and school governors. We’ve sat in the governors’ meetings. We know the weight a head teacher carries: accountable for everything, pulled in every direction, and having to trust that every adult who walks into that building is safe and good with children.

So when we say we understand, we mean it. We’ve been the ones worrying about safeguarding, budgets and what there is to show at inspection. It is exactly why we do things the way we do.

What twenty years teaches you

Twenty years in this world teaches you a lot. It teaches you what great looks like, and what it doesn’t. It teaches you that the badge on the polo shirt means nothing if the person wearing it isn’t right. That busy and happy is not the same as good. That what a school actually needs is the same trusted face every week, and proof that it’s working.

We learned those lessons the long way round, and some of them the hard way. Every one of them is now built into how Sportivity does things: our own directly employed people, real professional standards, and quality we can prove.

Why we’re back

We could have stayed comfortable. We’ve both got good careers. But we’ve got too much left to give, and we missed it too much. The schools, the coaches, the families, the children.

So here we are. Forty years of friendship, twenty years of doing this, two families of our own, and a belief that has only grown stronger.

We’re back. And honestly, we’ve never been more ready.

Every move matters.

Andy and Danny