Basketball New South Wales held their annual awards on the 18th of November, 2018 at Qudos Bank Arena during the WNBL & NBL double header featuring the Sydney Uni Flames & Sydney Kings. BNSW would like to congratulate all nominees and award recipients on their achievements and for joining us to celebrate.
Long Service Award:
Basketball New South is excited to announce the 2018 Annual Award Winners of the Long Service Award.
This particular award is presented to individuals for the service within the basketball community over an extended period of time.
We would formally like to acknowledge and congratulate the following individuals.
Erwin Balsar:
Basketball New South Wales would like to congratulate Erwin Balsar of the Shoalhaven Basketball Association, on being awarded a Long Service Award.
Erwin Balsar (Stumpy) has been a major part of Shoalhaven Basketball Functioning for the past 38 years. It all started back in 1980 when his son Scott took up playing basketball and he has never looked back since. During these 38 years, Erwin has sat on various committees from Miniball, Junior, State League, Fundraising, Maintenance and the Board of Management of which he held the position of President of SBA for 5 years.
Anyone that comes to a basketball stadium across the state knows Erwin (Stumpy) as the stadium chef as he catered for visiting teams that traveled to Shoalhaven during the Waratah league season for over 15 years he also was the head caterer for NSW Country basketball and NSW Basketball for all their development programs including Tours, Jamboree and NITP. Erwin was recognised in 2010 by the Australian Junior Country Basketball cup with an award of merit for over 10 years of service to the development of Country Basketball.
In Erwin’s spare time he was the maintenance man during the Christmas breaks at the Tigers Den when most people are enjoying the Christmas cheer you would find him at the stadium sanding, resurfacing, cleaning and repairing the floors this includes many hours of hard labour and two solid weeks of his own time.
Erwin played an inaugural part of the upgrade of the SBA Canteen and the renewal and replacement of the stadium roof. Erwin was the canteen manager for 10 years running around picking up and ordering stock, stocking fridges and chip stands. The profit of many years of hard work in the canteen paid for the replacement of the stadium roof.
During Erwin’s earlier involvement he was a team manager for Junior domestic and Junior Representative Teams following and transporting his son Scott around NSW every weekend filling up water bottles and completing scoresheets booking accommodation and cooking meals. Once his son had graduated so did Erwin he took on the role of team manager for the Senior Representative program the Shoalhaven Tigers once again filling water bottles and scoresheets washing uniforms of which he is still doing today.
Erwin’s involvement in Shoalhaven Basketball is irreplaceable his continued work and support of SBA for the past 38 years has been somewhat enormous hence Erwin received his Life Membership of SBA in 1996 he is a one of a kind that you don’t find in many sporting organisations SBA is very grateful that they have him on their side.
Graeme Reid:
And another recipient of the long service award is Graeme Reid from Norths Basketball Association. Graeme has been a long supporter and active member of Norths Basketball Association, as he began playing and refereeing at 1987. The next few years he was elected tribunal chairman in 1988 and Vice President of Norths the following year. During 1990-2000, Norths grew by over 300% with Graeme presiding and began paying employees at the club for the first time.
Graeme also contributed to starting junior and domestic programs which demonstrated his long commitment to coaching representative basketball. After a seven-year hiatus, Graeme re-entered the Norths senior programs and was elected President of Norths from 2012-2016 and was also elected Finance and Metropolitan director of BNSW. Graeme has not only demonstrated his love for the game but also his high commitment to developing his staff, coaches, and athletes to also reach their goals in the sport.
Jann Partyka:
Also, we would like to congratulate Jann Partyka on being awarded the long service award. Originally involved with Hills Basketball Association through managing her son’s local competition teams, Jann also served many years on the Oakhill Basketball Club Committee and as a Hills Basketball Representative team manager.
Jann has been employed as Competition Manager at HBA since 1999 and over that time has overseen the growth of local competitions both in playing numbers and use of technology. Under Jann’s watch, local competition numbers at Hills have more than doubled and any success now and in the future is connected to that base.
While her role is a paid position, Jann has always gone well and truly above the call of duty in both time and commitment and it is obvious to all that she has the best interests of Hills Basketball at heart. In 2015 HBA recognised Jann’s contribution by making her a Life Member of the Association.
Jann will retire in 2019 and leaves with our heartfelt thanks and the knowledge that she will always be a special part of the Hills & BNSW Basketball family.
Vicki Dean:
And to add to the other recipients of the long service award we would like to congratulate Vicki Dean, from Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Basketball Association.
If an association has a heart and soul then Vicki is truly that and more for theHornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders. Having fallen into a administration role in the office accidentally many years ago, Vicki has kept the Spiders growing rapidly ever since. Even when the Brickpit opened and the Spiders needed volunteers and extra referees, they all returned “to help Vicki out”.
It’s a testament to the level of admiration, loyalty and trust the Spiders family have for her. Referees, Reps, Local Comp, facilities, growth plans, kids clinics, finances, IT planning, rolling out a new database, making sure we get plenty of referees to an action day or meeting the demands of the ever changing expectations of running a basketball Association Vicki never flinches and powers on at a million miles an hour, even while babysitting the grandkids.
Vicki is a shining example of what makes basketball great, passion, commitment, hard work and laughter, Vicki embodies every outstanding quality we all wish we had.
On behalf of Basketball NSW, congratulations to all four Long Service Award recipients.
CLICK HERE for Photo Gallery (Credit Narelle Spangher)