Contribution to Sport common theme at awards

Around 100 people turned up to the 29th Kaiwaka Sports Association Sports Awards held recently at the Kaiwaka Sports Complex.

Emcee John Markby, from More FM, read the profiles of the 20 high calibre nominees who all received a gift, with thanks to Tim Holdgate from the ANZ Bank.

Winners were: Senior Sportsperson of the Year, Rose O'Connell; Junior Sportsperson of the Year, Cheyanne De Ardenne; Service to Sport, Melissa Watts; Greg McRae Memorial Trophy, Bayley Coates.
Senior Sportsperson of the Year Rose O'Connell was nominated by the Kaiwaka Squash Club. As well as playing squash in Kaiwaka and Wellsford, Rose also competes in netball and touch and coaches high school netball.

Seventeen year old Cheyanne De Ardenne was nominated by the Otamatea High School Netball Club for her outstanding achievements in netball. She was the vice captain for the top Otamatea High School netball team and was selected to play for the North Harbour Under 17 reps team and the Rodney District Secondary Schools championship. Cheyanne is currently studying at the New Zealand Institute of Sport in Auckland.

Nominated by the Kaiwaka Netball Club, Service to Sport winner Melissa Watts is the manager, treasurer, administrator, fundraiser and organiser for the club as well as being the sole umpire and fill-in coach. Melissa is also the coach for the Rodney Netball Yr7 representative team.

The Greg McRae Memorial Trophy, awarded for sporting excellence and contribution to code, was won by Bayley Coates. Bayley plays for the OHS netball team 2 and was selected for Upper North Island Secondary Schools. Bayley achieved her centre badge theory and her junior umpiring badge. Bayley won the Saunders Trophy for dedication to umpiring and also won the Netball Rodney Umpire Association Most Improved Junior Umpire award.

Throughout the evening there was a colouring-in competition to keep the children entertained - congratulations to Alyssa Flannagan and Holly Kenyon who won family passes to Motat.

Many thanks to Mark and the catering team for a lovely meal, to guest speaker Charles Donoghue, to bar volunteers Melissa and Bruce and to Steve Campbell from overviewsnz.com who took photos throughout the evening. Photos can be viewed on our website www.kaiwakasports.co.nz.

- Cheryl Anderson, KSA co-ordinator