Barnsley's dedication to rugby recognised in volunteer awards

Northern Wairoa's Colleen Glass, Simon Barnsley and Jamie Crosbie were named the volunteer coaches of the year at the annual SPARC Awards at Kensington Stadium. Northern Wairoa cleaned up at the Northern region's Sport and Recreation Volunteer Coach of the Year Awards, with their nominees winning three from three category prizes.
Dargaville High School technology teacher Simon Barnsley was lost for words when he collected the general category award (those who had been coaching a while but not quite a lifetime), followed by the hotly contested overall prize for his work coaching the Dargaville Under-15 rugby team, the Northland Under-15s and Taniwha Under-13s.
Barnsley also helped out with the South Zone Under-15s and the Dargaville High First XV.
"I'm pretty stoked - I didn't expect to be collecting any awards as there are heaps of excellent people here," he said after Friday's award ceremony at Kensington Stadium.
Rain, hail or shine, Barnsley was at trainings twice a week and games on Saturdays - not only to coach, but also organise transport, accommodation, after match food, and washing the team kit, and he made sure made sure he was kept up to date with relevant rugby coaching workshops.
Barnsley had been coaching footy for five years since arriving from the United Kingdom, and he said he was looking forward to helping out again next year wherever he may be needed.
Ruawai College's headboy Jamie Crosbie started his coaching career young and has already made a huge impact on his
community.
In his final year at school the 18-year-old juggled his commitments to coach year seven and eights at basketball, as well as junior volleyball and touch rugby teams. Crosbie held off three other strong finalists in the student volunteer coach category.
"Our school sports co-ordinator Marie Chapman gave me the opportunity to coach and once I started I really enjoyed it," he said.
The ambitious teenager, who played inter-house school basketball himself during the year, also voluntarily ran a community basketball tournament single-handedly.
Three finalists were nominated for the lifetime coaching achievement at the awards - Whangarei's Vicki Gribble and John Godfrey were up there for their huge contributions to hockey for over 20 years, but it was Ruawai's Colleen Glass who took home the prize.
For 25 years, Glass has worked relentlessly, coaching and administering netball within her region.
Glass is a driving force behind the Northern Wairoa Netball Association as president, has coached numerous Ruawai teams over the years as well as running the Northern Wairoa Performance Centre.
"It's awesome winning this - I just do it for the love of the game," she said.
It was truly the Northern Wairoa's day when they uncannily collected all but one of the spot prizes at the ceremony.
In total, 178 Northland coaches were nominated for the awards, while nationally 5000 nominations were received, demonstrating the number of people who generously give up their time.