David’s story started off as a sad one. His father (Dave Walsh) died trying to rescue two boys from the sea as he looked on. 

This tragedy happened when David’s dad went into the sea at Ingoldmells near Skegness, to rescue David’s cousins aged 10 and 13. 

Aged 10, David felt powerless as he couldn’t do anything to save his father. He attempted to run in after him but was held back by a member of the public. He also witnessed repeated attempts to revive his father on the beach.

These events had a profound effect on his confidence, self-esteem and mental health. This loss also triggered depression in David’s mother, who very quickly became dependant on him for her own emotional needs. As the foundations of his childhood crumbled, he had to take on the adult responsibility for the day-to-day running of the family home. 

As an outlet for David’s own grief and frustration, he began to seek solace with undesirable friendships outside of the family home which rapidly escalated towards a path of antisocial behaviour and association with a toxic gang culture.

It was not long before David was promoted to Lead Coach, showing excellent skill and motivation, not only as a coach, but as a role model and mentor to other young people. The behaviour within the Alvaston youth community improved due to other young people seeing the pathway that David was on and wanting to replicate that themselves. 

There was also a surge in volunteers helping out at the Alvaston session and Alvaston young people volunteering at their annual road race event. David went on to win ‘Coach of the Year’. 

When Ben set up Sporting Communities in May 2012, Ben then asked David to join him in helping to provide a new, ethical, high-quality sport and social development service within Derby City and David gladly agreed.

David – who was shortlisted for the 2018 BBC Unsung Hero Award – now delivers a range of different sports across Derby City, in particular targeting disadvantaged communities. His innovative, inclusive approach to socially engaging participants and building a positive relationship that makes people feel inspired to try new sports and regularly participate is one which continues to have a fantastic response. 

Many of these coaching sessions are done outside on public facilities such as Multi-use Games Areas and open green space. The vast majority of participants accessing his coaching sessions are ones that cannot afford to access a local sports club and would not otherwise have the capacity to engage in sport. 

In all of the areas that David delivers diversionary activities through sport, there have been year on year falls in anti-social behaviour and increases in both wellbeing of participants and community cohesion. David has used sport and coaching to completely change his life. 

We asked David what success would look like to him from a coaching perspective?

“I would like to see these sessions in all 17 wards of my city and act as a safeguarding mechanism to protect each community.”