Sports Awards at Vitality Stadium recognises top achievers and features keynote speech by retired Team GB medal winner

Top sporting achievers from Brockenhurst College were officially recognised during a glittering awards night at AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium recently.

More than 150 people attended the black-tie event, which covered Brock’s entire sporting provision.

A total of 24 awards were presented, along with citations detailing the extent of winners’ achievements.

They then presented their official Player of the Year award to loud applause and enthusiastic cheers.

This was followed by a flurry of Players’ Player awards, which honoured key players from teams within each Sports Academy.

Head of Sport, Kevin Jones, opened the ceremony before handing over to Sports Academy leads.

Finally came the Contribution to Sport award, the Sporting Excellence award and the Team of the Year award.

Tyler Farrell, who won Basketball Academy Player of the Year, said:

“My teachers have supported me really well – they are great coaches. I’ve come a long way since the start of the season, so I would like to thank them and my teammates.”

Emilie Miller, who won Women’s Football Academy Player of the Year, said: “I wasn’t expecting to win the award. There’s loads of good players in the team that deserve the award – we’ve all played really well.

“The staff have been really great and have helped me develop as a player, and I feel like I have improved so much this season.”

Then it was on to the night’s keynote speaker, retired Team GB doubles badminton player Gail Emms MBE.

Gail won Gold at both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, as well as Silver at the Olympics, during the noughties.

She gave a motivational talk about self-belief, how to deal with setbacks, emphasising how hard work pays off in the end.

Gail said afterwards:

“This evening has been fantastic. As we watched all the sports students come in, you could see the pride they have, and how they appreciate their teachers and that the teachers really cared.

“Listening to the citations being read out also shows the high level of sporting commitment in the room – it’s great to see.

“I love coming to events like these because it’s my way of giving back. I don’t teach and I don’t coach, but I hope that by talking about my experiences and giving advice I can make a difference to the students’ futures.”

You can see the full list of award winners here:

Academy Player of the Year
Volleyball – Louise Wiener
Netball – Niamh Barratt
Basketball – Tyler Farrell
Rugby – Cody Hayman
Women’s Rugby – Sophie Swatridge
Women’s Football – Emilie Miller
Men’s Football – Chris Raven

Player’s Player of the Year
Men’s Football 1 – Blu Sexton-Chadwick
Men’s Football 2 – Alfie Farrar

Men’s Football 3 – Charlie Hennessey
Men’s Football 4 – Regan Dunn

Netball 1 – Emily Fowkes
Netball 2 – Kiera Herbst
Netball 3 – Eryn Barratt

Men’s Rugby – Aidan Cross
Women’s Rugby – Poppy Jones

Basketball 1 – Isaac Jenking
Basketball 2 – Efe Ashak

Volleyball – Louise Wiener

Women’s Football 1 – Darcey Maxted
Women’s football 2 – Emma Burton

Contribution to Sport
Vicky Thompson

Sporting Excellence
Carla Rudkin-Guillen

Team of the Year
Mixed Volleyball