The five Service to Sport nominees were – Gillian Bartram, Edna Brown, Drew Lohrer, Criss Strange and Valerie Temm who have made a huge contribution to sport within the Hamilton district.
 
Damien Puddle was awarded the Administrator of the Year, giving a huge amount for parkour in the region over the last year. Rebecca Gabel picked up the Coach of the Year award after having another successful year with coaching the University of Waikato Premier Netball team.
 
Hamilton Boys’ High School student leader and captain of the First XV rugby team Quinn Tupaea won the award for Secondary School Student Contribution to Sport for his contribution to rugby union. This award honours students who have demonstrated exceptional sports leadership in and out of school.
 
Sport Waikato was very pleased with the high caliber of nominations, finalists and winners who were nominated.
 
Congratulations to all our secondary school nominees and eligible winners who will now be considered as finalists for the Brian Perry Waikato Regional Sports Awards to be held on Thursday 1st February 2018 at Claudelands Conference and Event Centre, Hamilton.
 

2017 winners:

Service to Sport: Gillian Bartram, Edna Brown, Drew Lohrer, Criss Strange, Valerie Temm
Administrator of the Year: Damien Puddle
Coach of the Year: Rebecca Gabel
Secondary School Student Contribution to Sport: Quinn Tupaea

Summary of winners:

Administrator of the Year - Damien Puddle – NZ Parkour
Damien has worked with, and for, NZ Parkour tirelessly for over five years. His commitment to the organisation is absolute. Not only does he complete funding applications for NZ Parkour’s general operating costs and specific parkour projects, he also oversees design consultation services, event management for all regional parkour gatherings, social media management, accounting and website design.
 
Coach of the Year – Rebecca Gabel - Hamilton City Netball Centre
Coach of the University of Waikato Premier Netball team. Coach of the Hamilton City Netball Centre U-19 Netball team and coach of the Aotearoa Maori Secondary Schools Netball team – all teams have championship titles, an amazing feat. Rebecca is highly respected by all her players and gives guidance to up and coming coaches.
 
Secondary School Student Contribution to Sport - Quinn Tupaea – Hamilton Boy’s High School
Quinn is Hamilton Boys’ High School Captain of Sport, a Top 6 prefect, head of the sports committee – he also runs school house competitions, organises lunchtime and inter school sporting competitions and organised the school sports awards evening.  Quinn is also captain of the 1st XV and the New Zealand Secondary School rugby team.

Winners photos here
Photos from the night here