Sport Maker award for young leader
A Putaruru student’s dedication to sporting leadership has been rewarded with the Sport Maker Award.
Courtney Duncan a year 12 student at Putaruru College received the award from Sport New Zealand.
Physical educator Tania Rata said the 15-year-old is a role model for students at the school.
‘‘Courtney is a tireless leader within her community as a coach, player.
‘‘She has learnt how to adapt and modify games to involve everyone as well as build on her leadership skills.’’
The Kiwisport Programme aims at getting school aged children participating in organised sports.
Courtney has been part of the programme for two years. During this time she received the Community Leadership award in 2014 and 2015.
Courtney said she enjoyed helping her peers improve their swimming skills.
‘‘The experience you gain is truly worth it. If I didn’t volunteer then others wouldn’t get the chance to participate.’’
A few weeks ago she was also awarded with the Leadership award.
Part of the training involved learning how to deal with abusive behaviour from the sidelines.
As a referee for a range of sports Courtney said dealing with riled up parents has been an eye opener.
‘‘It gives you the confidence to step up and deal with conflict and not letting it go and doing something about it and trying to reason.
‘‘The big one is netball. That can be tough sometimes. It can be really scary but you gotta take it in your stride.’’
Rata, sports coordinator for the college, asked Courtney to join when she noticed she was coaching her sibling’s soccer team.
The plan is to concentrate on improving grades so she can go to university to be a secondary English and PE teacher.
‘‘People say I do it because it’s going to look good on my CV but it’s not like that. I do it because I enjoy it.’’
‘‘People ask you what you wanted to be when you were five years old and I wanted to be a teacher and I like working with kids and passing on knowledge.
‘‘The big one is communication. It was good showing how much communication does contribute to the way you do things.’’