Gerry Knights goes by the nickname of “legend’’ and now NSW Hockey has made it official by giving the Macarthur sports administrator one of its most prestigious honours, the men’s masters lifetime contribution to hockey award.
Knights, who has been passionately involved in Macarthur region hockey as a player and administrator, was presented with the award at hockey’s night of nights, its annual awards, held last week.
Humbled by the award, Knights used his acceptance speech to pay tribute to the people who have contributed to making hockey such a massively popular sport in the Macarthur region.
In front of national and international hockey representatives, Knights praised all of the people associated with hockey in Macarthur.
He acknowledged the value of local volunteers and coaches and the successes of the region’s junior boys and girls representative teams.
Knights, who is also the chief executive director of the South West Sydney Academy of Sport, is only the fourth person to receive hockey’s lifetime contribution award.
But he wasn’t the only person to be invited up on the stage to accept an award last week.
Indeed Macarthur stood out after bagging several awards during the night, with past and present South West Sydney Academy of Sport athletes leading the way.
They included current Hockeyroo Kellie White, who was named NSW female athlete of the year.
And Gerry Knights’s young hero, Nathanael Stewart, took out the junior male indoor player of the year award.
Macarthur’s Kylie Seymour was recognised as the NSW senior female umpire of the year.
It follows her selection as an umpire for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The championship junior girls award also went to the local Metro South West Sydney association.
“Winning these awards made it an amazing night for the Macarthur region,’’ Knights said.
“There is no reason not to expect that more top awards will come to Macarthur in the future as the local quality and growth of the sport gets stronger each year.’’
