Coach mentor of the year.

GERALDINE WILLIAMS - Winner

DEVOTED coach Geraldine Williams could never have imagined what she was creating when, as a 16-year-old fresh out of school, she started Grangetown Netball Club. Today, having developed into the strongest club in the region as a result of a quarter of a century of sheer hard work and commitment, Grangetown Netball Club fields teams from primary level to their elite senior team, covering 130 players at all levels.

The club is one of the top voluntarily run sporting organisations in the North-east, and a core sporting part of an area of high socio-economic depravation like Grangetown..

Geraldine now oversees a squad of coaches and team leaders, all of whom were once coached as players by herself, but still works every hour under the sun.

Geraldine said: "It's lovely to be recognised. The 25 years was well worth the wait.

"I see this award as being for the club, and for the area as well. The club is growing all the time and the aim is to get even bigger.

"It's great to see Grangetown teams representing the North-east in major competitions.

"My only wish is that I could have been there to pick up the award when my name was announced.

"But I had to rush back to Grangetown Youth and Community Centre when the awards ceremony started because the fire alarm was going off.

"By the time I got back to the Riverside the event had nearly finished, but at least I made it." She said: "I started out with just a group of girls that I played netball with at St Peter's School and it's developed from there. It can be a worry at times, but when you see how much everybody enjoys playing the game and representing the club, it's all worthwhile."

HOWARD LEIGHTON

IN an echo of Hollywood blockbuster Coach Carter, Howard has taken a group of novices from one of Middlesbrough's most deprived areas and turned them into not only a formidable basketball team but also dedicated pupils.

The Unity City Academy side started from scratch and under Howard - who has had England international and GB Olympic coaching experience - they have this year won the Tees Valley and North of England titles and finished ninth in the National Schools Championships against far more established teams.

"Yes a few people have mentioned that it is like a scene from Coach Carter," he laughed. "But the kids are the stars in this.

"What they have done on the sporting front has been fantastic.

They have proved to be very talented basketballers..

"But the real achievement has been that a group of pupils from a very disadvantaged area of Teesside have become dedicated and disciplined athletes and the positive effect it has had on their education - and that it has filtered through the school as a whole.

"Many of them are talking about staying on in education so they can continue as a team and that is brilliant result.

"I have been involved in sport for many years and at a very high level, but this is my proudest achievement."

JOHN HUTTON 

JOHN Hutton preaches what he practises. The distance runner has been coaching at New Markse Harriers for nine years and has helped a host of promising young runners reach their potential.

And he does it with a smile on his face.

He said: "I don't shout and bawl.

That's the old fashioned view of a coach. I try and put the athletes at their ease We have a laugh, and that helps bring the best out of them.

"But they are determined to do well, and seeing that endeavour is what gives me the most satisfaction..

"We sit down at the start of the season and look at their goals. And we set targets which are realistic, then if they exceed them, that's brilliant. I don't like to set targets that are so advanced that they get disheartened if they don't reach them.

"It's very important to have a good rapport between athlete and coach," added John, who spends a couple of evenings a week coaching the young Harriers, but is also members' secretary, field official, and by his own admission, general dogsbody at the club..