Six of South Australia’s amazing netball volunteers have been recognised as finalists for the 2023 HCF Volunteer Achievement Awards in the Metro and Country categories.
In the Metro category, Alexa Rae Austin of the Reynella Netball Club/South Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association, Tricia Crockford of Contax Netball Club/SA Rubies, and Peter Mazzachi from Matrics Netball Club/Adelaide Metropolitan Netball Division are the three finalists.
For Country, the finalists are Anne Jones from the North-Eastern Netball Association/ Brinkworth Spalding Redhill Netball Club, Tracy Mills from the Kangaroo Island Netball Association/Parndana Netball Club, and Rachel Wills from the Riverland Netball Association/Waikerie Netball Club.
The winners will be announced at Netball SA’s Awards Gala on Friday September 29.
HCF Volunteer Achievement Award (Metro)
Alexa-Rae Austin is the Director of Netball Operations for the Reynella Netball Club and Competitions Manager for the South Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association (SAMMNA).
She works incredibly hard to make a positive difference within the netball community and is one of the founding members of the Reynella Netball Club.
Alexa-Rae is passionate about shaping the club’s future, demonstrated through her official title as Director of Netball Operations and by taking an active role in junior development as a coach.
Outside of her work with Reynella, she is also the umpire coordinator for the Adelaide Metro Netball Division (AMND) and City Night Division (CND), and an important part of the Southern Dragons Tour Committee.
Alexa-Rae is highly regarded in her role as Competitions Manager for SAMMNA, where she oversees the coordination of the M-League and has been heavily involved in the creation of a three-year strategic plan for SAMMNA.
Tricia Crockford has volunteered as a selector, coach, committee member and in umpiring at the Contax Netball Club, and has been coach of the SA Rubies for the last ten years.
The SA Rubies compete at the annual Marie Little Shield event, which provides female athletes with an intellectual disability the chance to represent their state at a national level.
Tricia is dedicated and passionate about ensuring all players receive the opportunities they deserve.
She has been instrumental in improving equality for many athletes with intellectual disabilities and helping them develop into members of the SA Rubies team. Tricia is well-loved amongst by all players she coaches, and is humble when it comes to her achievements, getting on with the job without fuss.
She has recently become a bench official for Netball SA’s The Hospital Research Foundation Group Premier League and has also been a Team Manager for the SA17U State Team for the past two years, highlighting her broad contributions to the sport.
Peter Mazzachi is passionate about encouraging participation and joy in netball and has been the President of the Matrics Netball Club for the past 11 years.
His nomination for this award highlighted his work in helping grow Matrics from 16 teams to 43 teams and become a strong values-based club.
Additionally, he has held the title of AMND President for the last three years, stepping into the role to keep the competition going, and previously helped revise and rewrite competition rules for the Premier League and AMND.
In this role, Peter has a diverse range of skills in recording scores, player participation, overseeing any court issues, and dealing with any challenges impacting all AMND clubs.
Peter has put in an extraordinary amount of unpaid hours across his many years of involvement in netball, and has made a significant contribution to Matrics, AMND as well as the broader netball community.
HCF Volunteer Achievement Award (Country)
Tracy Mills has spent more than 30 years volunteering in etball on Kangaroo Island, taking on a number of positions at club and association level.
Currently, she is President of the Parndana Netball Club, alongside her work as a development accredited coach, an umpire, umpire coordinator and Under 15s coach.
Tracy is also the Kangaroo Island Netball Association (KINA) joint secretary and Netball SA representative and works with both organisations to organise clinics for players, coaches and umpires.
Her nomination highlights her enthusiasm for the development of junior players and umpires on the Kangaroo Island and commitment to ensuring they have the same opportunities as metropolitan areas.
Anne Jones has been involved with the Brinkworth Spalding Redhill Netball Club (BSR) and the North Eastern Netball Association (NENA) for over 20 years and has dedicated a lot of time to playing, coaching and official positions.
Over the years Anne has held the roles of BSR Secretary, coach, team manager, NENA Secretary and has served as the BSR Junior Coordinator and Junior Association Delegate since 2016.
She is a well-respected member of BSR Netball Club and NENA who is known for being a strong advocate for young players, and has a wealth of netball knowledge in skills and drills, to individual and team development, policies and procedures, and grading and wellbeing.
Through Covid-19, Anne encouraged and facilitated regular trainings for BSR junior netballers, including the participation at carnivals to ensure they remained active and engaged in the sport despite the challenges presented by the Pandemic.
Anne is a very capable individual and a fast learner, and her nomination reflects her immense contributions to Netball across both the BSR Netball Club and NENA over a long period of time.
Rachel Wills has been a committee member for the Waikerie Netball Club for three years, putting her hand up when there were fears the club would fold if there wasn’t a committee.
Volunteering as both canteen manager and uniform co-ordinator, Rachel dedicates many hours to buying and cooking food, and making rosters for the canteen as well as toilets and clubroom cleaning.
She has been heavily involved with organising fundraising activities and other functions, and often steps up to help run the ‘NetSetGo’ program when required coaching the club’s most junior players.
Additionally, Rachel organised for the local Woolworths to donate a $50 gift card each week to help fund the canteen, and also regularly donates food items to the club rather than seek reimbursement.
She is always one of the first to arrive on game day and won’t leave until all the dishes are washed and the clubrooms are clean, demonstrating her commitment and selfless volunteering for the club.
