Young Orienteer of the Year 2025

Having received 4 glowing testaments to youngsters who have contributed a huge amount to the sport through their volunteering, we finally decided to award Young Orienteer of the Year to Finlay McLuckie of Moravian Orienteering Club (MOR). Here he is being presented with this very well deserved award at a Scottish Junior Orienteering Squad (ScotJOS) camp by Roger Goddard, the ScotJOS Lead Coach.

Having already published the full citation, it is sufficient to say that Finlay has impressed members of his club, the staff team and the sport as a whole with his contributions to coaching, welcoming newcomers, serving on the club committee and planning club events, all of which he has tackled with maturity and dedication. The icing on the cake was his contribution to the planning of Day 1 of the Scottish Six Days this year.

The main thing that stood out from all the entries was the sheer variety of volunteer activities
that our juniors get involved in. Others nominated were:
Euan Tryner for his work as club captain of Edinburgh University Orienteering Club (EUOC)
Scarlett Kelly of Forth Valley Orienteering Club (FVO) for her work in event planning, coaching and mapping in her club as well as being a consistent positive role model for young orienteers
Emily Atkinson of East Lothian Orienteering Club (ELO) for her work in volunteering at events, planning, welcoming newcomers and generally helping out.

If you are a young person and have been inspired by the example of these 4 nominees, do checkout the SOA Training Calendar to see how SOA training could help you to develop the skills to follow in their footsteps – Young Assistant Coach, Young Planner and Young Organisers courses offered each year.