Watties Volunteer Coach of the Year

Watties is on a nationwide search to discover New Zealand's volunteer coaches.  All volunteer coaches deserve to be stars, so nominate yours today! Make a nomination and your coach could be rewarded with up to $3000 towards coaching development or equipment.  

 The categories are as follows:

Student - an intermediate or high school-aged coach 

This recognises young coaches (intermediate or high school age) who are volunteering their time to coach their peers or younger students at their schools or clubs. It would be valuable to promote this category to local intermediate and secondary schools, and even to the junior grade sections of local sports clubs (ie midget football, Small Blacks rugby etc).

Newcomer - coaching for five years or less

This category is for anyone who is currently coaching a team, but has been involved in coaching for less than five years. They will generally be mums and dads, aunts and uncles, parents and teachers who give up their time week in, week out.  This is a good category to highlight to clubs, as well as to school teachers.

General - coaching for more than five years but not yet a lifetime

This category is for the coaches who give up their time week in, week out, and have been doing so for a while (ie longer than five years).  Most clubs will have a least one person like this in their ranks.

Lifetime - coaching for a long time
This is an award for people who have committed their time over a long period, and for whom this involvement in coaching has been a regular, significant contribution. It could be a club coach, or a long serving teacher, and will be someone highly-deserving of recognition for their great volunteer service over a long time.

 2007 Regional Winners  

Dempsey Woodley, Belinda Race, Amy Johnson, Thomas Perenara

 Media Release Wednesday, 5 September, 2007 

2007 National Finalists
Congratulations to Dempsey Woodley on being a national finalist. Dempsey is one of 17 finalists from through out New Zealand and from a wide range of sporting codes.  This is a wonderful achievement as there were a total of 2,900 nominations.
Media Release Thursday, 18 October, 2007

Who qualifies ?

Anyone who coaches at a club or school level, in any sport (not at a representative level) can be nominated.  Wattie's Volunteer Coach of the Year recognises coaches for their volunteer, unpaid coaching.  This is an important factor in the judging process, so tell us all about what your volunteer coach does on a voluntary basis.  In particular, highlight the past year of coaching.

How to Enter

Entries open in mid to late June every year and close at the beginning of August.   Entry form will be available on this page.   Nominations are also accepted online at www.watties.co.nz towards the end of June every year.