Without the tireless work of community volunteers, netball at all levels of the game, from grassroots right through to the elite, wouldn’t be possible.
In South Australia, they play a significant role in the running and growth of netball across the entire state.
For the 2023 Volunteer Achievement Awards, Peter Mazzachi has been named the winner of the Metro category and Tracy Mills has taken out the Country category.
President of both the Matrics Netball Club and the Adelaide Metropolitan Netball Division, Peter Mazzachi has dedicated many years to encouraging participation and joy in netball.
Over the past eleven years as president of Matrics, he has helped the club build into a powerhouse of the Premier League and AMND competitions, growing from 16 teams to 43 teams in this time.
Under Mazzachi’s leadership, Matrics became the first club to film Premier League games and he took it upon himself to share copies with other teams, umpires and Netball SA, to help with development.
Mazzachi also attends every game of the Premier League season and live streams the games for families of country players and others that cannot attend.
In addition to his work with Matrics, he has been president of the AMND for the last three years and was influential in helping to revise and rewrite the competition rules for the Premier League and AMND.
He is extremely hands-on in this role, recording scores, overseeing any court issues, and helping all AMND clubs with challenges they face, along with being involved in player participation.
It is estimated that Mazzachi volunteers 15 hours per week to netball, in addition to his full time job as a bank executive.
For more than 30 years, Tracy Mills has been involved in netball on the Kangaroo Island in and winning the Volunteer of the Year Award (Country) is recognition for all she has done for the region.
Mills has been a dedicated volunteer for over three decades in various coaching, umpire and official committee roles at club and association level.
She is passionate about developing junior netballers and umpires, and ensuring the Kangaroo Island netball community has access to the same opportunities as those in metropolitan areas.
Currently, Mills is President of the Parndana Netball Club, joint secretary of the Kangaroo Island Netball Association, and KINA’s Netball SA representative and also volunteers as a coach, umpire and umpire roster person.
She works with various stakeholders across the Kangaroo Island and Netball South Australia to organise clinics for players, coaches and umpires, and regularly mentors junior umpires as well as supporting their learning by encouraging participation in other courses.
Highly respected within the Kangaroo Island netball community for all of her work, Mills is a very deserving winner of the award.
Mazzachi and Mills were presented with their awards at the Netball SA Awards Gala on Friday, September 29.
