Another year brings another successful SWAS Awards Night & Dinner as our SWAS family and friends, gathered to celebrate our 2019 Athletes and their amazing achievements.
Commencing the night SWAS CEO Nic Kaiser spoke on another fruitful year for SWAS as he wished to “recognise all the effort and determination shown by all SWAS athletes in 2019” sighting SWAS was able to support 100 Athletes, across 8 Sports programs and 11 individual sports. With several standout performances including; 10 SWAS Athletes representing Australia, 28 Athletes representing Victoria and 83 of the 100 representing their region within their chosen sport.
Following on from Nic our MC for the night, Liam Fitzgerald set the tone for the night and introduced our guest speaker Sarah Lynch (Katsoulis).
As an accomplished athlete, Sarah spoke of the highs and lows during her successful career representing Australia as a swimmer specifically breaststroke. This included her career-high of her 2008 World Short Course Championship Gold Medal Victory, an excellent insight for all our athletes.
Concluding Sarah’s speech, it was time to present our first awards of the night, Strength & Conditioning based on an athlete’s performance during their weekly Strength & Conditioning Sessions. For each municipality within the South West, one athlete is presented with the Strength & Conditioning Award.
Our deserving recipients were;
Emily Morden Corangamite Shire
Sarah Tunstall Glenelg
Callum Bridge Moyne
Gabby Lougheed Warrnambool
Bayden Penrose Southern Grampians
Dinner followed our first awards of the night providing not only an excellent meal as always thanks to Flying Hose Warrnambool but the opportunity for parents and athletes of all sports to socialising in a manner not always present during the very busy SWAS calendar year.
After dinner awards resumed with our sport-specific awards first. An impressive insight into many of our recipients sporting lives with highlights notably from the relaxed Harry Stinchcombe and extremely informative Max Phillips. A credit to all our awardees on how they spoke and presented themselves. Notably, Noah Best was unable to attend as he was away doing what he does best as he competed within his respected sport while Jedah Huf was unable to attend as she was competing in another sport of her own, basketball.
Our deserving recipients were;
Noah Best Golf
Harry Clark Clay Target
Harry Stinchcombe Surfing
Max Phillips Tennis
Jedah Huf Netball
Ruben de Silva-Smith Cycling
In addition to our sport-specific awards our presentation for our Individual Athlete Program
Our deserving recipient was;
Chloe Mutton IAP (Gymnastics)
Concluding our night were our two major awards, our Performance Excellence Awards recognising The highest achievement of a SWAS athlete in 2019 and our Overall Excellence Award for the SWAS athlete who displays all the qualities of a high achiever dedicated to performance excellence, leadership and contribution to sport or community. An athlete who is taking charge of their own pathway and giving to others along the way and upholds all the values of the Academy.
Our deserving recipients were;
Cayty Sharp Performance Excellence Award – for her success in representing
Australian at the Global Games 2019
Ruben de Silva Smith Overall Excellence Award
In close we wish to thank all who attended our night of nights and to all our amazing athletes, families, coaches, sponsors, board members, education partners, sporting partners, supporting organizations, national, state, and regional, our MC Liam Fitzgerald, The Flying Horse, Lifetime trophies, our amazing guest speaker, Sarah Lynch (Katsoulis) and to anyone else who has supported our programs and awards night throughout the year.
We look forward to another huge awards night in 2020 as we look to a new venue to support the growth of SWAS and the importance of the Awards Night & Dinner and we hope all our eligible athletes reapply and retrial for their respective 2020 programs.