Star athletics duo Nick Palmer and Georgia Hulls scooped the major awards at the SBS Bank Hawke’s Bay Secondary School Sports Awards tonight.

Shot Putter Nick Palmer was the biggest winner of the night taking out the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) Male Sportsperson of the Year and then the SBS Bank Supreme Award.

The Karamu High School student had an outstanding year which included claiming a silver medal at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games held in the Bahamas. 

Sport Hawke’s Bay Community Sport Manager Junior Armstrong said the judges had a tough choice between Palmer and Hulls.

Hulls, from Havelock North High School, was the dominant sprint queen nationally in 2016/17, taking an array of medals at the Oceania Athletics Championships and was awarded the Shoe Clinic Female Sportsperson of the Year.

To kick-off the awards, the sporting codes category winners were announced with 13 codes being recognized, including equestrian, squash, tennis, orienteering, rugby, football, netball, volleyball, basketball, athletics, hockey, cricket and canoeing. 

Over 170 nominations were received, and it was the job of the 4 judges, Ross Holden, Shane Hurndell, Marcus Agnew and Kirsten Demanser-Wilson to jointly decide who was the winner in each of the major categories. 

Following the sporting codes categories, Tony Maidens, co-chair for the Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sports Trust announced the winner of the Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sports Trust Scholarship. Hastings Girls’ High School student, Rhiarne Taiapa was announced as the second recipient of the scholarship, following Bobbi Gichard in 2015. Taiapa was awarded $2,500 to assist with their future sporting endeavours and credits her hardworking parents for their ongoing support in what is a very individual sport.

The Hastings Girls’ High product has represented New Zealand in squash since 2013 as was the NZ Under 17 Junior Girls Squash Champion along with the Under 17 Oceania Girls Champion in the past 12 months.

First up among the major categories was the NZ Couriers Student Contribution to Sport Award. Georgia Trent of Woodford House came away victorious in that category after her contribution to Netball in the past year. 

Eight individuals were recognized with the Hawke’s Bay Today Service to School Sport Award. Chris Hansen, Grant McFarland and Ian Smith of St. John’s College, Reva Josephs of Flaxmere College, Jon Mathews, Tracy Taylor and Dave Taylor of Karamu High School and Trent Miller of Hastings Boys’High School were all among the eight. 

After a spectacular year on the field, Mark Ozlich and Tafai Ioasa were named Furnware Coach of the Year for their tremendous work with the Hastings Boys’ High School First XV Team, which also went on to the win the Kennedy Park Team of the Year for 2017.  

Brady Nicholson of Havelock North High School took home the Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sports Trust Official of the Year for his officiating on the volleyball court. 

This year, two new awards emerged; the Youthtown Female and Male All Rounder of the Year. For the females, Rosalia Samia proved to outshine the rest with outstanding accomplishments in two sports; basketball and volleyball, while Ronan Lee came away as the male winner with accolades in orienteering, athletics and cross country.

Napier Boys’ High Schools’ Guy Harrison took home the trophy for ZM Para-Sportsperson of the Year after capturing a medal at the 2017 World Junior Para Athletics Championships in August.

“This is an event Sport Hawke’s Bay is proud to again deliver. It is a night that the secondary school sport community comes together to celebrate what has been another outstanding year both on and off the field” said Community Sport Manager Junior Armstrong. 

“I’d like to congratulate all those nominated, our finalists and those lucky enough to receive awards this evening”

For a full list of winners, please see below

2017 SBS Bank Hawke’s Bay Sports Awards