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Federal Sports Achievement AwardLast modified: May 26, 2008 - 9:26 AM
Surveying activity on several courts as Scone netballers train at dusk, her passion for nurturing young sportspeople is unmistakable. Robyn Adams has a full-time job as Finance Manager for Upper Hunter Shire Council but for many years has undertaken a range of volunteer roles with sports including netball and basketball. As she arrives at 5pm at the Bill Rose Sports Complex, a group of netballers scurry over cheerfully - Robyn is coach of the 13-year team, but it is obvious she is equally fond of all the players, from the little Netta team members to the in-form representative team. Her untiring efforts as coach, mentor, administrator, umpire and promoter of local sport were recognised last week when Federal Member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon presented Robyn with a Sports Achievement Award. Robyn recalls when netball began with a caravan and two fields, and the sport in Scone now boasts 260 players and more than its fair share of representative players. "Our Under 17 team won the Hunter United Cup against Newcastle, and our representative players do pretty well against much bigger towns," Robyn pointed out. "The kids don't have to be world-beaters, but if you can get them in and get them interested, once you teach them some skills and they start to improve, you see their self-confidence really blossom," she said. "Even kids that are quite academically gifted but not all that confident about sport start to realise they can train and learn new skills and it really enhances their self-confidence." "We need to continue to encourage kids to play sport." Currently Robyn is president of Scone Basketball and draw secretary and coach for the Under-13 representative side for netball. Needless to say, the family is sporting: Robyn plays both basketball and netball, daughter Maddie, 15, plays netball, son Michael football as did their dad David Adams, one of six sons of rugby league legend Bandy Adams, while son Nathan is a keen hockey player. "He is a football legend as he played for Australia and all of his sons played at representative level, and he is a lovely person," Robyn said of her well-known father-in-law. How on earth does she find time? "I work all week and this is just what I do when I am not at work, I really enjoy it, every weekend we are taking teams away somewhere," she said with a smile. "I like seeing the kids progress, and having been here for a long time, I have seen a lot of growth in sport in the Upper Hunter. "For a while it was pretty hard for us to get out and compete against teams from bigger towns, but we are now increasingly bigger," she said.
"We have an incredible range of sport on offer for kids - everything from Tai Kwon Do to archery - and all the clubs work together," said Robyn. Contact details |
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© 2008 Upper Hunter Shire Council |
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