Joe McKechnie, of Easingwold, hoping for Paralympic glory

Joe McKechnie, 22, of Chasegarth Road in Easingwold, is currently working towards his goal of gaining a place in the England football squad for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

Joe, who works as a teaching assistant at Easingwold Primary School, has progressed through the various football levels and has reached the national cerebral palsy development squad, having already captained the England team in two major tournaments and received some very encouraging feedback.

He said: “I was playing mainstream football for about 12 years, but I wasn’t getting into squads and was only getting to play for the last two minutes of games, which was pretty disheartening. I was at the point of giving up, because I didn’t see the point in showing up for games week in week out every Saturday morning not to be picked.

“I got into playing football with other people with cerebral palsy quite by chance. I had sent off my CV for a coaching job and I told them I had cerebral palsy and they asked me if I’d be interested in doing trials for the team.”

Joe said he had not told many people at work about his football.

He said: “To be honest, I haven’t told that many of the kids at the school so they don’t know a lot about it, but the ones I have told say that they don’t believe I play for England.”

As part of the selection process, Joe has regularly been training with the squad at the England HQ at Lilleshall in Shropshire and he is hoping to progress to the full team for the Paralympics.

He said: “I can’t wait for the games to be honest. I think it’ll be touch and go if I get into the squad as they’ve got a shortlist of 20 players for London 2012 and at the moment I keep falling at about 22 or 23 – just outside that number.”

Closer to home, Joe’s been training at the Galtres Centre in Easingwold. York’s Coppergate Shopping Centre has also sponsored Joe, which has enabled him to under take the extra training he needs in the run up to the Games.