Shaun Romeo is the Head Community Basketball Coach of Reading Rockets, a professional basketball team in Berkshire. Shaun joined the Rockets after spending over 20 years working in IT.
When his own children were diagnosed with ADHD and Autism he took a voluntary redundancy to spend more time with them which then lead to : “A job through Reading Rockets, which I got my son through to help him manage his emotions.”.
So when the offer came from the club founder and the CEO “Matt and Gary who I know very well said: “would you consider doing some coaching in the communities””. And Shaun’s response says a lot: “For me it was a no brainer”.
This work at Rockets opened up gateways for Shaun who began to work in JMA high school in Reading and from that he “was asked to be a pastoral support worker… helped kids who were struggling”. For Shaun the work he does to help as many kids as possible has been a calling: “It means the world changing someone’s life”.
It is clear that Shaun understands the importance of listening to the needs of every individual as: “Pretty much all the kids that have come in have been isolated, they’ve never really had any friends, they struggled to socialize. So to see them come in smiling, having jokes, thats rewarding in itself.”.
The work Shaun has done for the past few years has made such an impact in the lives of so many young people and he has plans to expand the work he’s been doing: “Long term I’m going to be creating a basketball team so these guys have a place to play”.
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