Hotspur Hero – Dan Gaze

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Dan Gaze has been nominated as our latest Hotspur Hero after using his passion for sport – and Spurs – to mentor young people with learning difficulties across his local area and beyond.

After coming through a difficult period in his own life in 2002, Dan, initially from Stevenage but now based in Shefford, trained as a teacher and has spent the last 13 years working with children with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) difficulties – going above and beyond during the pandemic to ensure his students had the support they needed.

Consequently, he’s been nominated by his peers as part of our Hotspur Heroes campaign, where we celebrate Spurs-supporting key workers and individuals who have made a tangible difference in their communities during this most challenging of years.

Now 37, Dan spent 12 years at Falconer School in Bushey, starting out as a teaching assistant, going on to become Head of PE and being appointed Assistant Headteacher, before moving to The Chiltern School in Houghton Regis to continue his career, all the while utilising the values of sport to help students with a range of special needs to learn and build their characters.

“I think it’s important that every child should get every opportunity, whether they have special needs or not,” said Dan, who has also helped to raise thousands of pounds for charities that steer young people away from drug addiction and knife crime via community football events – including a fixture against our Spurs Legends charity side back in 2015.

“When I took over at Falconers as Head of PE, I thought it was important that our students still had access to mainstream sport and got the opportunity to compete at every level, whether they have low ability or high ability. I used sport more as a mentoring tool – you create leaders, you get people to lead warm-ups, which gives them skills for the future to go into work, you use communication, both verbal and non-verbal, to help them progress and you get them to use sport to express themselves. I feel that sport is such an outlet, especially in the special needs sector, because you can use it to teach young people about self-esteem and teamwork. The motto at Falconers at the time was ‘Dream, believe, achieve’ and I thought that was a massive thing for young people to follow.”

During lockdown earlier this year, Dan had limited face-to-face interaction with his students but still found a way to continue his good work.

“It was vital for me to support them in the best way I could, being there to help the children of key workers and supporting the process of getting children back into school,” he explained. “It was quite a difficult and emotional time for us as staff to not see the pupils – they were sending in pictures and videos and we were putting together assemblies for them remotely. We had online teaching classrooms and I also went out to deliver free school meal vouchers – I felt it was important to do that. It was a very stressful and overwhelming situation for everyone.”

Dan, a lifelong Spurs fan who names Paul Gascoigne, Gary Mabbutt, Ledley King and Toby Alderweireld as some of his inspirations, has now set up his own business to continue mentoring and supporting young people who are struggling to engage in schools and manage their emotions and behaviour.

“It’s just everyday life, it’s what we all do – be kind, come to work and help people,” said Dan humbly as he reflected on being nominated as a Hotspur Hero. “It’s quite emotional for me to be nominated – I’m very proud of this. For Tottenham, who I’ve supported my whole life and who my eight-year-old son Maddox supports as well, to have noticed me and my work, I really appreciate it. I’d like to thank all the staff and in particular the young people I’ve worked with throughout my career – I believe this is deserved recognition for them too.”

Help us highlight our Hotspur Heroes

Help us continue to champion Spurs-supporting key workers by nominating a Hero.

Show your appreciation on social media too, using the hashtag #HotspurHeroes.

Meet our Hotspur Heroes

Danielle Morrish
David Johnson
Nikki Peddie
Rob Moses
Steve Hayden
Emma Foskett
Sachin 'Sash' Patel
Ian Caddy
Simon Hamilton
David Evans
Melissa Davies Oliveck
Farah Mapara
Saul Gaunt