WA amongst top achievers
Bowls Australia Awards Night winners Bowls Australia staged its sixth annual Awards Night at the Mantra Legends, on Surfers Paradise tonight, with the sport’s most deserving athletes, administrators, clubs and media recognised for their outstanding contribution over the past twelve months.
Award winners were crowned for 12 categories, including the inaugural Club of the Year and Bowler with a Disability of the Year categories with WA winning two awards.
Bowls WA State Coach Therese Hastings was named as the Coach of the Year. Therese was recognised at this year’s Awards Night in her position Western Australian State Women’s Coach and as National Training Centre Coach for WA.
As the coach, Therese contributed to a resurgence in the WA women’s team at the Australian Sides Championships. After a disappointing seventh placing in 2015, the team enjoyed a significant turnaround in performance on and off the green this year; beaten by the eventual winners, NSW, in round 1, but recovering for an undefeated campaign thereafter to claim the silver medal.
Therese has also played an important role in developing and nurturing young and new talent within her state, and led her charges to gold and silver medals at the Hong Kong Classic Pairs as the team’s coach.
Therese’s club Manning also won an award as a joint winner of Club of the Year.
Western Australia’s Manning Memorial was selected as a finalist in the inaugural Stockland Retirement Living Club of the Year award due in part to their successful staging of the Jack Attack participation program and strong community links.
Manning implemented the Jack Attack program in 2015, and it has since gone from strength to strength. The product brings more than 120 patrons to the club to participate weekly, and has resulted in the signing of numerous full club members and social members.
The club has also fostered strong linkages with their local community. Their facilities are used for darts competition six months of the year, jive and ballroom dancing five days per week all year, as well as various other events.
Manning has advocated strongly for charitable groups, including fundraising days for the cancer council, Como Rotary club, and the State Mountain biking team, in addition to hosting a charity event for Yarloop Bowling Club, which was greatly affected earlier this year by bushfires, an event which raised and donated over $4,000 to a bowls club in need.
To read more about the Bowls Australia Awards Night winners click here
Photo and information supplied by Bowls Australia
Photo: Therese Hastings with her Coach of the Year Award
