Basketball New South Wales held their annual awards on the 8th of December, 2019 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.
Player of the Year Awards:
Sydney Uni Flames – Karen Dalton Metro Junior Female (Under 20 Years)
Alana Goodchild – Hornsby Basketball Association
Alana is an outstanding young basketball player that has shown through dedication and hard work anything is possible. A familiar face in the BNSW High-Performance pathway including SPP, Alana represented NSW Metro at the U18 Australian Championships in Townsville earlier this year. Alana also helped lead her Hornsby side to a State Championship. Previously she has also won gold representing Australia at the U16 Asia Cup and was identified to attend the Australian Development Camp at the beginning of this year. Lastly, after a successful 12 months, Alana was also selected in the Emerging Flames group for 2019-20 in the Sydney Uni Flames development program.
Sydney Kings – Matthew Nielsen Metro Junior (Under 20 years)
Ryan Abbott – City of Sydney Basketball Association
Ryan is a distinctive and exceptional young talent that always strives to improve in all areas of his game. Ryan has had a busy and momentous 12 months. He is a SPP graduate and has been a dedicated member of the BNSW High-Performance Pathways for a number of years.
Earlier in the year, he was also selected to represent NSW Metro at the U18 Australian Junior Championships who won bronze. After a great performance at Nationals, Ryan secured a spot with the U17 Australian Men’s team, where they won gold at the U17 Oceania Championships. To top off a successful year for Ryan, his U18 Div1 side won both the Metro Junior League & State Championships for Comets.
Gordon McLeod NSW Country Junior Male (Under 20 years)
Brendan Freire – Illawarra Basketball Association
Brendan is a dedicated athlete who always aspires to constantly improve which is shown through his hard-working approach across numerous years within the BNSW High-Performance program. At the start of 2019, Brendan represented NSW at the U20 Australian Championships and secured bronze for his efforts. He followed this success by continuing to play for Illawarra in Youth League, playing big minutes for his side before unfortunately tearing his ACL late in the season.
In May, Brendan put pen to paper and joined American College, Saint Martin’s located in Lacey, Washington where he is completing his rehab & still attending school.
Lauren Jackson NSW Country Junior Female (Under 20 years)
Isabel Palmer – Newcastle Basketball Association
Isabel is a focused, and motivated individual who has always put her best foot forward in every facet of her basketball life. She collected a silver medal for NSW at the U20 Australian Championships in February and also was awarded with player of the tournament for her efforts. Isy also graduated from the Centre of Excellence and was apart of the CEO’s NBL1 squad.
Following her success on both the national and international stage, unfortunately, it was followed by an injury that kept her out of an Under 19 World Cup with the Australian U19 Gems squad. Currently, Isy is attending college in America on a basketball scholarship at the University of Texas.
On behalf of Basketball NSW, congratulations to all our award recipients.
CLICK HERE for Photo Gallery (Credit Nigel Owen )