Softball gospel wins award

Masterton softball identity Russell Thompson was the big success story when Sport Wellington hosted the 2010 regional Sparc Volunteer Coach Awards function at the Renouf Tennis Centre in Brooklyn.
Some 400 nominations were received for the three categories (student, general and lifetime) with Thompson taking out the lifetime award and then being adjudged overall regional winner for good measure.
For Thompson, just being nominated for the lifetime award by the Giants Softball Club he has been so closely associated with for more than 20 years was a huge thrill, to actually triumph over a star-studded field of coaches representing a plethora of sports was, by his own admission, a complete surprise.
"Honestly, I never gave it a thought, "Thompson said yesterday. "I was just delighted to be part of it, that was enough for me."
Thompson's softball coaching days actually started by default some 34 years ago when at the age of 15 he went along to watch his brother, Troy, play for the Stokes Valley under-10s and found they did not have a coach.
He stepped into the breach and, basically, a softball season hasn't gone past since when he hasn't coached at least one team, usually more, with the current number standing at an incredible 76.
Among the many notable Thompson achievements have been coaching a Hutt Valley under-17 team, including his son, Blair, to the national title, being assistant coach to Giants' Tony Nixon for a Hutt Valley senior men's team that won the NPC crown, and being player-coach to two Giants teams which won Hutt Valley premier men's competitions.
But ask him which of those deeds ranks as the highlight and Thompson prefers to talk about helping players at the very grassroots level to enhance their knowledge of the sport he loves.
And he has done plenty of that, particularly for Giants where he has coached teams all the way from schoolboy to premier one levels.
In fact, this season it is their under-13 boys team which is receiving the benefits of Thompson's tutelage and, with two wins from as many games in their Hutt Valley competition, they are obviously bearing the fruits of his expertise.
At Masterton Intermediate, where he teaches, Thompson has spread the softball gospel for "more years than I care to remember" and he was the main driving force in Giants establishing a league for intermediate school players some six years ago.
This league has attracted large numbers of teams on a regular basis and surprise, surprise, has been won by Masterton Intermediate each year.
The Thompson coaching philosophy is based very much around discipline, on and off the diamond, and he is a stickler for punctuality.
"Turning up late just isn't on, I don't like that at all," he said.
"And players need to have good work ethics too, without that they are never going to develop their game to the full potential."
Thompson will now go forward to represent the Wellington region at the national Sparc Volunteer Coach of the Year awards and will also receive a coach development opportunity sponsored by Sparc.
Two other Wairarapa sporting personalities were also finalists in the general category section of the Wellington regional event, John Steventon and Peter Semmens.
Steventon has organised junior players for the Martinborough Squash Club for the past three years and has been so successful that junior numbers have grown from just a handful to more than 40. Semmens became chairman of the Masterton Red Star Rugby Club's JAB section in 2006, at which stage the club membership at junior level was 74.
In 2010, it is 202 and much of this is due to the passion Semmens has shown, in the chairman's role and as a coach.