23 Apr 2009

Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) basketball athletes have taken top honours at the Basketball Australia Junior Awards on 22 April 2009 in Adelaide.

Hugh Greenwood from Tasmania was named junior male player of the year and Stephanie Cumming from Victoria took out junior female player of the year.

Both athletes were thrilled with the awards, which were presented in front of 120 members of the Australian basketball community.

‘This really is an honour,’ said Greenwood. ‘There are so many amazing basketballers out there — I’m really excited to receive this.’

Olympic and National Basketball League championship coach Brian Goorjian was guest speaker at the awards and provided insights drawn from his remarkable coaching career, as well as advice on coaching and playing basketball from junior to high performance level.

During the ceremony Basketball Australia also announced that, from 2009, the junior Coach of the Year awards would be named after Patrick Hunt, in recognition of his outstanding commitment and contribution to national basketball development. Patrick Hunt, who is now AIS Applied Technical Advancement Coach, was honoured at separate event last Monday evening.

The inaugural Patrick Hunt Male and Female Coach of the Year awards were presented to Guy Molloy from Victoria and Pam Hamilton-Smith from Queensland.

Other individuals recognised by Basketball Australia at the Junior Awards:

• Male Contribution to Players with an Intellectual Disability award — Kevin Archer (NSW)
• Female Contribution to Players with an Intellectual Disability award — Meredith Evans (NSW)
• Best Media Coverage — South Coast Register, Rob Crawford (NSW)
• Male Vocation and Education Award — Daniel Fisher (VIC)
• Female Vocation and Education Award — Darcy Wilson (NSW)
• Junior Score Table Official of the Year — Judy Smith (SA)
• Junior Statistician of the Year — Richard Noble (ACT)
• Male Referee of the Year — Nathan Durant (SA)
• Female Referee of the Year — Vanessa Devlin (SA)
• Male Administrator of the Year — Jeff Larson (NT)
• Female Administrator of the Year — Darlene Jenke (SA)
• Male Volunteer of the Year Junior Basketball — Anto Panoyan (NSW)
• Female Volunteer of the Year Junior Basketball — Jodie Barratt (SA)