Young talent’s time to shine
THE Gold Coast Academy of Sport is proud to share the recognition of athletes from the annual awards night which was hosted at the RACV Royal Pines on Thursday November 10.
More than 400 people gathered to celebrate a year of sport and development. All athletes who were involved in specific sports programs were recognised receiving a certificate.
During the night the Academy recognises one athlete from each program with an “Encouragement” and an “Athlete of the Year” award.
These athletes are selected by the coach or co-ordinator of the specific program and are decided upon by their training ethics and participation in the program.
The Academy also recognises outstanding commitment to sport and academic achievements through the Mayoral awards, the Hon. Mick Veivers AM award and the Female and Male Athlete of the Year.
The Mayoral awards are awarded to athletes who have shown outstanding commitment to all aspects of training, preparation and study. The athlete’s coaches, managers and peers have acknowledged those chosen for their contribution and potential to further develop as outstanding sports people in more ways than just performance.
The Hon. Mick Veivers AM Award is awarded to an athlete who epitomises the values of the academy. This award was renamed from Chairman’s award when Mick stood down from being Chair of the Academy and became the Patron. As founding chair of the Academy, he wanted to recognise an athlete who exemplifies the following ideals:
● To Achieve your best in every aspect of life;
● To Excel in everything you do;
● To Inspire others and yourself by your deeds; and last but not least
● To Respect yourself, the gifts and opportunities you’ve been given and those around you.
As you can imagine there were many athletes who would were noted to have these characteristics. We did ask coaches and managers to submit names to address the criteria.
Tia Murray from Upper Coomera State College and the Future Stars program was the selected athlete.
Tia has an extremely diverse life – she won the school cross country and ran well at Broadwater district Cross country. She was also age champion at the school athletics carnival. At Gold Coast Little Athletics regionals, she won discus and javelin. She also placed third in hurdles and triple jump, qualifying for states in all four events.
In year 7 at Upper Coomera, she was selected in the future stars sports academy, the Stem class and the creative arts academy. She has excelled in all three programs and has been offered a place in all three again in year 8.
She represented the school at district athletics in five events, winning the discus and the tetrathlon. She has also represented the school in year 7/8 and year 9/10 inter-school touch football with great success. At her school’s sports awards Tia won the MVP for 7/8 touch football, the future stars all-rounder award and the Broadwater athletics award for 12 years girls.
In Oztag she was selected in the Labrador state side and had a great tournament resulting in selection to the State Super Series. Selected in the QLD Southern Storm team she played at the Nationals in Coffs Harbour. Tia has also been asked to referee for Oztag and enjoys this. Just recently Tia has taken up karate and has been asked to represent her club in tournaments after only a few months.
The female athlete of the year was Montana Atkinson. Montana was selected as the Gold Coast Para Swimmer of the year and has set dozens of Australian and Qld records this year.
At 14, she is an S14 Multiclass National swimmer who dedicates herself to swimming and her dream is to represent Australia at the Paralympics at Paris 2024 and Los Angeles then onto Brisbane.
She has had to learn to overcome fears and challenges. When she was just 11, she experienced a massive seizure that left her oxygen-deprived for five minutes – this has left her with an intellectual disability. She lives for swimming now and is always smiling and looking to move to the next challenge.
Now a Harvey Norman Ambassador with thousands of followers on Instagram, she represented Australia recently in the Virtus Oceania Asia Games held in Brisbane where she competed in a number of swimming events coming away with multiple medals. Montana was unable to be there due to competition but a very worthy recipient.
The male athlete of the year was Thomas Kerkow-Hill. At the Paddle Queensland awards Thomas received two awards. The first being the Coulthart Trophy (which he also received in 2021) for best performing under 16 male paddler at the Paddle Australia National Marathon championships and secondly, the Canoe Sprint male Junior Paddler of the Year. It certainly was a great achievement.
In addition to these awards from the governing body, Thomas, along with other talented athletes, has received notification of being selected to go into Phase 2 of the YouFor32 program for Canoe Sprint. During all his sporting commitments he has also dealt with some extremely stressful family health issues.
It was great night for all those who attended and it was wonderful to see the expressions of athletes who won awards on the night.
Congratulations to all athletes who participated and particularly to the parents and carers who drive them to training and competitions throughout the year. You are a very special part of their sporting journey. We hope that you enjoy all of our photos.
In finishing I would like to say that there were many worthy athletes in our programs who could have received awards. To all athletes, not only those from the Academy, remember to celebrate the little successes along the way and never ever forget the BIG picture.
A sporting journey is continuous and never ends until your time in the sport does, and even then, when your personal journey ends, I hope your passion encourages you to stay and give back to your sport the way others gave when you were just starting.
Michael Jordan said the following: “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results. We live in a microwave society where we want and expect success to happen overnight. We see the success of those around us being shared on social media, but we don’t see the work that they put in behind the scenes to get to where they are. Success, greatness, and championships are born in the journey and they are only celebrated at the end. Put in the work, over time, if you want to get to where you want to get to!”
The Gold Coast Academy would particularly like to thank the City of Gold Coast for their support throughout the year to enable us to continue to deliver the many programs that were highlighted at our Awards night.
There are also a number of partners and supporting sponsors that we would also like to recognise. Those are RACV Royal Pines, Magic Millions, TFH, AllSport Physiotherapy, Allsport Travel, The Southport Sharks, 94.1FM, Hart Sport and Cambio Accounting.
We have to remember “it takes a village to raise a child”. Everyone that contributes to help the Academy deliver educational opportunities adds their support to helping young athletes chase their dreams.