Last Week for Nominations for the SportNI SportMaker Awards 2018
03 July 2018
Sport Northern Ireland is giving the sporting community an opportunity to say “thank you” to local coaches, officials and volunteers as it opens nominations for the 2018 SportMaker Awards. The Awards acknowledge the work of Northern Ireland’s sporting workforce and highlight the outstanding people and projects that have made a big impact over the last year.
Nominations can be made by anyone via the Sport NI website, with 12 award categories recognising achievement at all levels of sports participation, from grassroots through to high performance.
The Awards were launched by Sport NI Chief Executive Antoinette McKeown alongside a group of top coaches, including local coaches Elaine Rice (Netball NI), Stephen Maguire (British Athletics) and Paul Marshall (Instonians RFC).
Sport NI Chief Executive Antoinette McKeown commented:
“All of us working and involved in sport know that coaches, officials and volunteers play an absolutely vital role in getting people active and supporting them to pursue and achieve their sporting goals. The talent, commitment and passion of our sporting workforce here in Northern Ireland is outstanding, but because their work happens behind the scenes or off the field of play, they all too often go unnoticed. That’s why Sport NI is so delighted to be launching this year’s SportMaker Awards, providing a platform for us to recognise and celebrate the success and dedication of those who make sport happen every day, at community, club and elite level.”
Coach Development Lead for Athletics Northern Ireland-Laura Kerr added:
“It has been a fantastic year for Athletics highlighted by the outstanding performances of our athletes at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. Senior and Junior records have been broken both on the track and in the field with some stunning Irish Schools Performances. With growing membership in clubs, increased numbers of competitors at our junior championships and top class events like the Belfast International it’s important to remember Athletics couldn’t happen without dedicated officials and club volunteers.
Athletics NI were delighted to see Niall Wilkinson (Talent Coach), Matt Shields (Community Coach) and Bridgeen Byrne (Children’s Coach) win Sport NI awards last year and I would urge anyone who knows someone deserving of an award to make their nomination.”
Nominations can be made via the Sport NI website www.sportni.net/SportMaker. Nominations close on Friday 6 July 2018 for all categories.
The award categories are as follows:
Awards for Coaches
- Children’s Coach of the Year
- Community Coach of the Year
- Young Coach of the Year
- Disability Coach of the Year
- Talent Development Coach of the Year
- Club Performance Coach of the Year
- High Performance Coach of the Year
Awards for Officials
- Technical Official of the Year
- Young Technical Official of the Year
Awards for Volunteers
- Volunteer of the Year
- Young Volunteer of the Year
Awards for Coaching / Officiating / Volunteering Projects
- Project of the Year