West Yorkshire Club of the Year: Chapeltown. [Photo credit: Matthew Merrick]
Some of the most incredible coaches, officials, volunteers, clubs and organisations from across the country will come together for the National ONE Awards on Saturday 19 October.
Held at the National Motorcycle Museum & National Conference Centre in Solihull, all the contributions and achievements of the regional winners, who were celebrated at the nine regional ONE Awards earlier this year, will be recognised.
Katharine Merry – 400m Olympic medallist, well-known broadcaster and notable netball commentator and reporter – will host the event.
During the course of the evening, the 2024 national award recipients, selected by a national panel led by England Netball President Joan Mills, will be announced.
The following awards will be presented:
- Club of the Year
- Coach of the Year – Adults
- Coach of the Year – Children & Young People
- Community Official of the Year
- Inclusion Award
- Outstanding Contribution of the Year
- Pass on Your Passion 400 hours
- Pioneer of the Year
- Teacher of the Year
- Unsung Hero of the Year
- Young Volunteer of the Year
Details of all the national winners will be published on our website and social media channels following the event.
Ahead of the central celebration, read what all nine regions shared as their highlights from their own events over the summer…
The East region hosted their annual ONE Award volunteer recognition and celebration event on Sunday 14 July at Slepe Hall in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. The region received 135 nominations across the 10 categories and the award panel had a difficult job, but after long deliberation the top three in each category were selected and invited to attend the event.
The volunteers, East board, County Chairs, London Mavericks and EN staff came together for a wonderful afternoon. After reception drinks on the terrace, the event moved to the Brunel suite for a sit down two-course Sunday lunch, presentation, and award ceremony. East President and HLM Sheelagh Redpath kept everyone entertained during the afternoon.
The Coach of the Year awards went to Madeleine Smith for Children and Emily Drackford for Adults.
The East Midlands ONE Awards event took place on Sunday 7 July at the Radisson Blu, East Midlands, where we were joined by 180 nominees, guests, volunteers and VIPs to celebrate our Netball Family for the afternoon.
This year we had over 140 nominations for 105 individuals and clubs!
Loughborough Lightning’s Lauren Nicholls presented the region’s league trophies and did a brilliant Q&A with us and we recognised Kate Stephenson’s retirement from international umpiring as well as Sue Hunter standing down from 15 years as Regional Chair, whilst welcoming our new chair, Rowena Hackwood.
The London and South East Regional ONE Awards took place on 23 June 2024 at ISH Venues, in London where attendees had a lovely afternoon celebrating all the amazing things volunteers within our region have been doing.
It is rare that so many volunteers from across the region can come together and share their good work and initiatives so the ONE Awards celebration was the perfect opportunity to shine a light on all the great things that are being done. The event also allowed volunteers to socialise and be further motivated and inspired by one another.
Tracey Daly won the Unsung Hero award, Alison Summerfield was recognised for Outstanding Contribution, with Tunbridge Wells Warriors being named Community Club of the Year.
The North East’s One Awards took place on 21 June at the Grand Hotel in Gosforth Park. Winners included Gemma White with the Inclusion Award, Liz Wisniewski, who was named Unsung Hero, and Club of the Year Darlington Headlanders, as well as Ashley Pearson, who won Coach of the Year for Adults.
North East Netball said: “Ashley is the reason that so many women and girls play netball in her area. She has been part of her club Tynedale for over 10 years and lives, breathes and bleeds netball. Since injury, she has gained her Level 1 and Level 2 coaching, starting as Assistant Coach at Tynedale and ending up as Head Coach. Her sessions are engaging, player-oriented, and accessible. She is always looking for ways to improve her session and to keep the fire of netball fully lit in everyone’s hearts.”
The North West had their One Awards in Liverpool on 7 July to celebrate five years since the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup being hosted in the city.
240 people attended including the President of Netball America Natasha Ainsley-Thomas and Joan Mills, the England Netball President.
70 nominees from across the region were nominated for the Netball South ONE Awards and winners were invited to a celebratory afternoon tea at Rose’s Tea Room, Guildford on 15 June, where they were presented with their awards by Phyllis Avery, Netball South President, and Lindsay Sartori, from the Netball South Regional Management Board.
It was a wonderful afternoon recognising and celebrating the achievements of winners from across the region. The Netball South Long Service Awards, Honorary Life Membership and Netball South President’s Award were also presented. Netball South President’s Award was presented to ‘Vitality Rose’ Fran Williams’ family on her behalf.
The South West One Awards, held at Woodbury Park, Exeter on 30 June, were our biggest ever with over 150 guests in attendance. We also hosted a networking hour for all County Chairs at the same venue.
Amongst all the ama ng winner, the stand-out was perhaps Bristol After Stroke, who have successfully run a 12-week course of sessions allowing people to return to exercise and netball after suffering a stroke. They have been so successful they have now been able to put two of the participants through a Walking Netball host course to allow the sessions to continue to run.
We recently set up a partnership with FearFree, a domestic abuse charity and invited one of their staff members to come along and talk about the charity, the partnership and the work they are doing around the South West.
The West Midlands event took place on 5 July at the Heart of England Conference and Events Centre in Warwickshire.
The West Midlands presented Honorary Life Memberships for the first time in over 10 years, recognising the exemplary contributions of Kerrie Jones, Fiona Cashmore, Syd Smailes, and Sally-Ann Chambers to regional netball.
A particular highlight of the evening was the presentation of our Unsung Hero award – presented to Norma McLean – who received a standing ovation from the majority of the room – testimony to how many netballers she has impacted through her work with the Birmingham Netball League and Birmingham Intermediate Netball League.
The Yorkshire One Awards in partnership with Leeds Rhinos Netball, took place at, Headingley Stadium on Sunday 2 June. It was great to get together with the Yorkshire Netball Family and Leeds Rhinos to celebrate a great season.
Take away moments included Chapeltown winning Club of the Year and delivering an empowering speech focusing on the strong community they’ve built around their club and within their local community.
Net4All won Pioneer of the Year and the Inclusion Award, with two of their young members collecting the award.
