Sutherland Shire's Maria Lynch was named the recipient of the Margaret Corbett OAM Coaches Award for 2020 at Netball NSW's High Tea celebration in Sydney Olympic Park over the weekend.
The award is presented in recognition of a coach who displays excellence within competitions conducted by Netball NSW.
Corbett, a Legend of NSW netball who made a huge contribution to netball at International, National, State and Association levels, was on hand to present Lynch with her award.
It was a double celebration for Sutherland Shire with Corbett also a proud product of the Association.
Upon receiving the award, Lynch reflected on the challenging year that COVID19 presented for the netball community.
"I think it's a testament to our sport that we are such great leaders in making sure that our competitions keep going," she said.
"As a coach this year it was very different... technology is not my forte but the girls were happy to lead us in that sort of thing and it was great to be able to give some of the power back to them to drive some of what we were looking to do."
When asked about the pressures of coaching in the COVID-world, Lynch was quick to praise the attitude of her players.
"The girls have been very resilient and it's been a year where they've just had to go with the flow," she added.
"Some girls have missed out on playing at Nationals which they worked so hard to get to... so as a coach it was good to be able to support them, to guide them and make sure they were feeling okay everyday - that was the important thing."
On being presented with the award by Corbett - who was last year made only the second-ever Legend in the Netball NSW Hall of Fame - Lynch said:
"She has had so much passion and vision for netball over the years... and is so respected all over Australia and internationally.
"If I could do a tenth of what Marg has done in her coaching journey, I hope that I've been able to give that back to the coaches and players that I've worked with along the Netball NSW pathway."
Netball NSW would also like to acknowledge the coaches that have worked tirelessly on improving their craft despite the challenges of 2020.
These coaches, including former NSW Swifts captain Abbey McCulloch, have achieved higher accreditations in the following categories:
Advanced
- Sarah Antico – Northern Suburbs
- Nicole Barrett – Eastwood Ryde
- Tracey Connolly – Campbelltown District
- Debbie Deans Smith – Eastwood Ryde
- Sue Guggenheimer – Eastwood Ryde
- Stephanie Harrison – Camden & District
- Abbey McCulloch – Sutherland Shire
- Kylie O'Brien – Sutherland Shire
- Elicha Reitsma – Baulkham Hills Shire
- Ashlee Scofield – Illawarra District
- Yvette Sheedy – Hills District
Elite
- Kath Tetley – Baulkham Hills Shire
- Craig Marsh – Sutherland Shire
- Marji Parr – Shoalhaven
- Pate Cooper - Sydney Netball Academy
