The Victorian School Sports Awards, held on Wednesday 27 April 2022, recognised outstanding students and teachers involved in school sports in 2021.
At a ceremony at Melbourne's Glasshouse, 28 individual Sporting Blue Awards were presented to students who demonstrated excellence in particular sports.
In addition, 5 awards recognised outstanding achievements and contributions by students and teachers to school and community sports.
Master of ceremonies at the event was Madison Browne, Commonwealth Games gold medallist and former Australian Diamonds netball champion.
The event also featured Paralympic swimmer Col Pearse and Olympic diver Anabelle Smith, who presented the awards.
The awards are coordinated by School Sport Victoria (pdf 185kb), which runs an extensive school sport program for primary and secondary schools across Victoria.
The awards represent the highest sporting recognition by Victoria's government school system.
Individual achievement
Gisborne Primary School student Addison Goodall received an Outstanding Sporting Achievement award for her contribution to dance in 2021.
Addison is an accomplished dancer of styles such as ballet, lyrical and contemporary. She has been successful at regional, state and national levels.
'I love how I can be myself in my dancing and express my feelings through the diversity of the dance styles,' she said.
'There are many dance styles from soft ballet to harder, faster styles like jazz and hip hop.'
Addison naturally leads and encourages others. She's been chosen for roles such as school sports captain, dance troupe leader and helping 'tiny tot' classes at her dance school.
Alanna Peart of Ballarat High School is a world-ranked racewalker who has competed at state, national and international levels.
She received a Sporting Blue Award for athletics and an Outstanding Sporting Achievement Award.
Alanna has been bringing home medals at national championships since she was 8. In 2021 she was ranked number one in Australia for Under 20 in the 5-kilometre racewalking and number 2 for Under 20 in the 10-kilometre track and racewalking.
A lot of Alanna's drive to succeed comes from Olympic racewalking champion Jared Tallent, who is her cousin.
'Jared has inspired me over the years, especially when I first began the sport. I watched him at the Olympic Games winning multiple medals, including a silver and bronze in Beijing, gold at London, and silver in Rio,' she said.
'This inspired me to train harder in the sport of racewalking to hopefully one day go to the Olympics.'
Outstanding leadership
The Lindsay Gaze Award for Outstanding Sports Leadership was awarded to Aanchal Sharma of Suzanne Cory High School.
Through determination and hard work to become a competitive table tennis player, Aanchal has emerged as a powerful role model for women in sports that are traditionally dominated by men.
'At my former school, when I started playing table tennis, there were only 3 girls out of 30 students. I noticed that girls weren't encouraged to participate in male-dominated sports,' she said.
'This sparked my interest in raising awareness about gender disparity in sports that still exists.'
Teaching excellence
Outstanding Teacher Contribution Awards went to teachers Taryn Richardson of McClelland Secondary College and Christopher Sly of Oberon High School.
Taryn has made an enormous contribution to student participation, health and wellbeing through her involvement in softball and baseball.
She coaches baseball at Sandringham Baseball Club in summer, Dingley Baseball Club in winter and softball at Rebels Dandenong, along with holding roles at both state and national levels.
Meanwhile, Christopher was instrumental in running a virtual cross-country event at Oberon High School during the learning-from-home period in 2021.
He got students involved in fitness and wellbeing activities that brought the school community together during a challenging time.
Find out more
To view the full list of recipients and videos featuring the winners, and to nominate an award recipient, refer to Victorian School Sports Awards.
For enquiries, contact: Raff Agostino, Marketing and Communications, School Sport Victoria:
- phone: 03 9084 9186
- email: raff.agostino@education.vic.gov.au
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