What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

I started working for Loughborough Sport as Coaching and Officiating Officer in July 2024, but first came to Loughborough in 2020 as a student.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

This varies a lot throughout the year, we’ll go through phases focused on recruitment, deployment, and development of student coaches and officials – then while out of term-time we’ll generally shift to planning and preparing for the next one.

Generally speaking there’s a lot of meetings with various staff and students – usually planning or implementing courses or development opportunities. It’s also fairly common we’ll be delivering/facilitating an evening CPD (continued professional development) session.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

I’ve been fortunate to help work on a number of really fun projects, such as the Fresher’s Week planning group, AU coaching development strategy, and the EmpowerHER campaign.

My favourite to date has to be our recent Student Officiating Conference, where we invited a number of international calibre officials to speak to a group of our referee’s, umpires, and officials. It was really rewarding to see it come together and help facilitate that opportunity for our students!

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

In my final year of studies I chaired the AU Basketball Club and we won the AU’s Volunteering Club of the Year Award. So many coaches, committee, and gameday volunteers went above and beyond that year to earn that award. I’m really proud of the part I played in helping to facilitate that, and it was a moment that made me feel incredibly proud of the club and many of the people closest to me.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

I currently help coach in the AU Basketball Club and am also learning to play the guitar!

What is your favourite quote?

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall ~ Nelson Mandela

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Lilia Boukikova at L.Boukikova@lboro.ac.uk