Kathi Scott and Trudy Cochrane won awards at the Netball New Zealand volunteer of the year awards announced yesterday. In fact, half of the four awards given out went to Otago.
Cochrane (48) was named coach of the year while Scott (48) was named official of the year.
Cochrane, of Balclutha, is a busy coach, guiding three teams this year and spending plenty of hours travelling around the province.
She first started played when she was 7 and then moved into coaching when her children became involved.
She was a marching coach before changing to netball.
This year, she coached the Uni Albion premier team in Dunedin, the South Otago under-15 A team and the South Otago under-15 team.
The mother of four also played for the Hillend team.
``I still love it. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't. You get so much enjoyment from coaching. The girls are always really keen and you can bounce off that,'' she said.
She is in her first year coaching the Uni Albion team and said she enjoyed coaching at the premier level.
Her coaching mentor, Noeline Scott, had been a big help for her, she said, along with her friend, Michelle Odell, who helped manage teams. It was a surprise for her to win.
``My friend [Odell] told me she was going to nominate me and that was great. But I sort of forgot about it after that and just thought there would have been plenty of people nominated. But it was great to win.''
The mother of Sacha (20), Meisha (18), Abbey (15) and Clayton (14), with husband Dean, she had gone to conferences to improve her coaching skills and there was no sign of her putting down the coaching bib any time soon.
Scott (48) was very surprised to win her award.
She umpires two games and organises a coaching panel every Saturday, which watches umpires officiating in matches. She also organises more than 100 umpires needed for the midweek social competition at Edgar Centre.
She said umpires were vital to the game.
``We always need more umpires so when someone shows an interest we give them the opportunity to go further and make some progress,'' she said.
``The one-on-one coaching that we do is really vital. It just helps the umpires learn and grow.''
She umpired at premier club level in Dunedin and said she was happy to win the award.
``So many people do such a lot of work for netball and make the game what it is. Without them you wouldn't have the game we have now.''
A mother of two grown children, she had no aspirations to umpire at the highest level but was happy helping and officiating at club level.
The southern duo will be honoured at the test between Australia and New Zealand in Christchurch on Sunday.
