The WCA work actively to acknowledge the growing community of volunteers within our game.
Each year the Wairarapa Cricket Association hosts an annual Volunteers evening to say thank you, and award a Volunteer of the Year shield to one volunteer, at any level, who has been recognised for their valuable input.
This page will be utilised to recognise our volunteers, and provide any information from other bodies (New Zealand Cricket, Central Districts Cricket, Sport Wellington) about courses and offerings available.
Volunteer of the Year 2018-19 Season:
Colin Mann, from Masterton Intermediate School, has overseen continued significant growth female participation growth in his school setting.
He has been involved, with background support from the Wairarapa Cricket Association, in a strategy of enhancing participation in a number of different ways. Colin makes excellent use of a variety of introductions to the sport – through social competitions at lunchtime where he is actively engaged, via utilisation of WCA staff when available for skills and coaching sessions, and even active encouragement (some players simply invited via shoulder-tapping) to allow any and all to become involved in the teams that he oversees.
For the 2018/19 season alone, Colin has been able to register somewhere 70 and 80 female players, many of whom have never experienced cricket before, and overseen the running of all MIS school teams in WCA organised competitions.
Colin ensures that all trainings are effective and enjoyable, running a series of skills stations each Tuesday afternoon, and inviting non-registered players to join in if they wanted to have some fun. He has embraced, moreso than any other coordinator in the District, a Hub system of coaching and coordinator support from Wairarapa Cricket, partaking in pre and post season briefings, and fully engaging on a weekly basis around progressions within his system.
For the 2018/19 season Colin consistently sought new experiences for his players, including (but were not limited to) teams attending WCA organised Festival days; coaching a team over the school holidays that attended the WCA organised lower north island U/13 tournament.
It is estimated that over the past 4 seasons alone, Colin has introduced in the region of 200 new female players to the joys of cricket, many of whom have moved on to other settings, maintaining their participation in the game.
Secondary School Student Service to Cricket Award 2018-19 Season:
Kayarna Jones-Dennes from Wairarapa College was the winner of this newly established award.
In 2019, Kayarna became coach of the Wairarapa college Junior Gold Girls cricket team, including running training sessions for them on Tuesdays and umpiring and coaching at games on Thursdays.This follows on from 2018 where she was co-coach of Wairarapa College 2nd XI Girls side.Despite suffering a significant injury this season, she is always present at 1st XI games (a side she would be captaining barring the injury) – helping to score or umpire. She is a great role model to the younger students – not only teaching them the basics of playing the game, but also educating them on a number of other fronts, including how to score and umpire.Kayarna also frequently attends community cricket events as an umpire on behalf of the college.
