Top Line-up of Finalists Announced

Squash NZ announce the finalists for the National Coaching Awards, the Club of the Year Award and the Volunteer of the Year Award. All winners will be announced at the Squash NZ Awards Ceremony on Friday 29 November at the Jet Park Hotel, Auckland.

National Coaching Awards

The Coaching Advisory Panel were pleased with the quantity and quality of nominations this year with over 30 nominations received (an increase of almost 50% from last year). Squash NZ Coach Director Dave Clarke said "there were some really great nominations which made the Panel's decision really difficult. It's great to see the benefits of the Coach Development Framework really starting to shine through, with more and new credible applicants each year".

The finalists for each Coaching Award category are listed below (in alphabetical order).  (Last year's coaching award winners are pictured below, at right).  Full nominations can be found at the bottom of this article.

New Coach of the Year

• Paul Bedford (Bay of Plenty)
• Michael Dunston (Bay of Plenty)
• John Roestenburg (Central)
• Jarrod van Driel (Auckland)

Club and School Coach of the Year

• Trudy Englebretsen (Wellington)
• Mike Hebditch (Northland)
• Markjohn Riley (Canterbury)
• Paul Roughan (Wellington)

District Performance Coach of the Year

• Simon Flett (Southland)
• Nick Mita (Wellington)
• Carol Owens (Auckland)
• Robbie Wyatt (Bay of Plenty)

Club of the Year

This year Squash NZ ran the Club of the Year Award in collaboration with the Districts. Districts opened up nominations locally and their winners automatically became finalists for the National Award.  

The Club of the Year nominations were also of a very high calibre and it’s great to see so many good things going on at clubs around the country. A judging panel member said "We were very pleased with the quality of the finalists and the enthusiasm and good practice that had been bought to their clubs.  They can all be very proud of their achievements.”

The five finalists, in alphabetical order, are:

• Christchurch Football (Canterbury)
• Otautau (Southland)
• Red Star (Wellington)
• Warkworth (Auckland)
• Whangarei (Northland)

Volunteer of the Year

This year Squash New Zealand, in collaboration with the Districts, has run a national Volunteer of the Year award. Districts opened up nominations locally and their winners automatically became finalists for the National Award. Squash New Zealand is pleased to announce the following finalists (in alphabetical order):

• Alan Bee (Whangarei, Northland)
• Karen Hadfield (Manurewa, Auckland)
• Wayne Wills (Whakatane, Bay of Plenty)

Pennie O’Connor, Squash NZ Development Director said “reading through the nominations is very humbling – there are so many amazing people throughout the country who are just so passionate about our sport and go above and beyond to make it happen in their local community. We are very proud of our volunteers in squash and are looking forward to announcing the winner at the Awards Ceremony”.

Congratulations to all shortlisted finalists and thank you to all those who took the time to nominate their club, volunteers and/or coaches. For more information about the awards, please click here.

ALL Coaching Award Nominations

(Listed in alphabetical order).