NSW sport minister Steve Kamper was on hand to present some of the honours at the 2024 South West Sydney Academy of Sport athlete graduation and sport awards dinner last Friday night in Campbelltown.
There were some talented young athletes vying for honours once again, especially the major awards.
It became evident during the course of the evening that the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032 will become more and more of a driving force for academy athletes going forward.
Triathlete Zoe Bruce ruled the roost at the end of the night after taking out the top honour, the Campbelltown Catholic Club chairperson’s award.
The other nominees for this award were AFLW’s Emma Duggan, 3×3 Basketballer Oskar Vagaja, BMX’s Isla Basa, golfer Libby Newcombe, and hockey’s Patrick Manny.
Also vying for this award were Max Brown-Tjakuapi from the indigenous athlete program, netball/umpiring’s Saige Tautalafua and softball’s Lachlan Boland. Also, volleyball’s Cody Meisenhofen and Reki Roberts from the Wests Future Stars program.
BMX champion Isla Basa was earlier named South32 Illawarra Metallurgical Coal athlete of the year, ahead of
Daniel Lill, (para-swimming), Cody Meisenhofen, (volleyball), Reki Roberts, (athletics) and Indianna Wilson, (weightlifting).
The athlete of the year with a disability was para-swimmer Daniel Lill, while Isabelle Stephens was named the academy’s Indigenous person of the year.
Western Sydney University award for academic excellence: Jade Dabrowski, basketball.
Coach of the year: Jeff Cooper, basketball.
Young coach of the year: Piper Steed, netball umpires.
Sport program coaches awards:
3×3 Basketball: Emily Paulic and Max Brown-Tjakuapi
AFLW: Tarra Hine
Basketball: Kaitlin Kumar and Oskar Vagaja
BMX: Ajay Willmott
Golf: Lucy Bowyer
Hockey: Arianna King and Myron D’Sousa
Indigenous athlete program: Michael Psarikis
Netball athletes: Deziah Pugh
Netball umpires: Karlia Warwick
Softball: Ameliya Fairbairn and Alexandre Taylor
Triathlon: Matthew Fosse
Volleyball: Noah Piper and Joyanne Manihera
Wests Future Stars: Daniel Lill and Indianna Wilson.
