It was a night of celebration for Hills Hornets Touch at the Annual NSW Touch Blues Night Awards last Saturday. For the 3rd time in 4 years Hills Hornets Touch was crowned NSW Touch Affiliate of the year, and for the 4th time in 5 years the club won Sydney Scorpions Affiliate of the year. It capped off an extraordinary week for the Hills Hornets club, where only 24 hours earlier a record 5 Hornets teams had won their way through to Vawdon Cup Grand finals.
But the awards didn’t stop there; Hills Hornets President Brad Mitchell won Sydney Scorpions Administrator of the year for the 4th year in a row and then the NSW Touch Administrator of the year also for the 4th year in a row. Administrator of the year is an award everyone at the Hornets knows is well deserved by the man they know as “Mitch”, in recognition for his leadership and tireless work for the club.
And the awards kept flowing, with Matt Lawson and Tim Sleigh being recognised for their contribution with individual Blues Awards. Both men are previous winners of Hills Hornets own award for “Clubperson of the year” in recognition of the time and effort they put into making the Hornets club a success.
Hornets News caught up with Mitchell who was typically modest when asked about both his personal awards and the club awards.
“I might be President of this great club, but it is the incredible group of people at the Hills who volunteer their time week after week who these awards belong to.” said Mitchell.
“From the hard working committee members, to coaches, referees and team managers, a club such as ours cannot operate without them. To have our club recognised as the best in the state, says so much about those people.”
Mitchell also paid tribute to NSW Touch. “NSW Touch provide us with terrific support – from General manager Dean Russel all the way down through the organisation. As a governing body they are always willing to assist when we reach out, and in the opinion of so many of us who love touch footy, they execute the best run tournaments of any sport in the country. Our membership has swelled in a big part because people want to participate in those tournaments”
Hornets News also caught up with NSW Touch’s Event Coordinator, Keith Lee. Before moving into his current role, Keith provided support to the Hornets through his role as Development officer. He was thrilled to see the Hornets do well. “It was an amazing night for outstanding volunteers across the state to be recognised” said Lee. “I would like to extend the congratulations to all award nominees and winners, and in particular, a massive congratulations to Brad Mitchell and the Hills Hornets community for outstanding achievements on and off the field in the past year.”
So what’s next for the Hornets? Mitchell says “The execution of our strategy is going as planned with the off field work starting to deliver dividends on the field. After 5 of our teams have a crack at winning Vawdon Cup titles in 2 weeks’ time, the campaigns for Senior State Cup and Junior State Cup will begin in earnest.”
Bring it on!