A SELFLESS volunteer who has inspired scores of children with his passion for football has been nominated for The Press Community Pride awards.

Iain Cook, 52, has been put forward for the Sporting Hero award by two of his young footballing stars.

Brother and sister Kayla Brett and Joseph Richardson are both pupils at Poppleton Road primary school, where dedicated Iain runs the football teams.

Mum Sarah helped the children send their nomination in and said:

"Iain does this out of the goodness of his heart to enable the kids to participate in a sport that they love. He coaches a wide spectrum of children, including those with challenging behaviour and gets great results.

"All the children and parents think very highly of him.

"If it wasn't for Mr Cook, there would be no team and judging by how well the teams do, it would be a great loss to the school if he didn't dedicate his time as he does."

Iain, who works at ASDA on Monks Cross, took over the teams around seven years ago when the teacher who ran the team moved on.

Iain, whose wife works at the school, did not want to see the children be without a football team so stepped in to the breach and has been running the team ever since.

He said: "The more children we can get doing even half an hour of sports the better, because it gets them fitter and it's a great way to get them mixing more."

He now spends two evenings a week coaching the school's A and B team, and has even spent his own money on kit for the young players.

Headteacher Debbie Glover said: "Iain is completely voluntary. He works nights so he often comes straight from a night shift to a match.

"The boys and girls absolutely adore him and we appreciate what he does so much."

Sporting Hero is one of 11 categories in the Community Pride awards, which honour the unsung heroes of York.

More details and a nomination form are available at thepress.co.uk/pride