A Coleg Gwent tutor proved she’s got a winning formula when she won Teacher of the Year at Welsh Netball’s annual awards.
Emma Hurley, from Newbridge, was selected from netball coaches from schools and colleges across Wales as Welsh Netball’s Teacher of the Year. Emma proved she’s in a league of her own and scooped the honour at a glittering ceremony at Cardiff City Stadium in the summer.
Having coached Coleg Gwent’s netball team for 12 years, Emma has a wealth of expertise, skills and experience to pass onto the students. And it certainly pays off. This year the Coleg Gwent team won the South East Wales President’s Cup for the seventh consecutive year, were runners up in the Welsh Colleges women’s netball league and took third place in the Welsh Schools national championships.
Within the team nine players were selected for the South East Wales county squad, six played for the Welsh Colleges squad and six were selected for the Welsh Hub – the centre for development for netball in Wales.
Among these players was Chloe Turton who played for the county, the Welsh Colleges team and the Welsh Hub, partly due to Emma’s support, encouragement and of course her expertise.
She said: “Emma makes playing netball fun. She makes the drills and training sessions exciting and varied so you’re constantly focused and constantly developing your netball skills.”
Emma is always on the lookout for opportunities for her teams to develop. She invites touring teams to play at the College, is currently fundraising for a planned College sports tour to Barbados, runs umpiring courses to raise standards in the game and even engages male students in the game running weekly mixed training sessions which go down a storm. It’s a wonder she finds time to coach and play for Risca netball Club.
Emma’s dedication and success hasn’t gone unnoticed by her colleagues as she was nominated for the award by fellow sport lecturer, Mererid Dark.
Mr Dark said: “These tremendous team and individual achievements are a consequence of Emma’s outstanding teaching and coaching, her motivation and enthusiasm. Emma can bring out the best in all netball players. Players’ performance improves yearly and this is clearly demonstrated with the increasing number of girls being selected for higher levels of netball.
“As a colleague and friend I admire her dedication, commitment and achievements and believe that as a teacher she does more for netball than anyone I know and consistently goes above and beyond the call of duty. I am over the moon that this has been recognised with this award, Emma truly deserves it.”
And it’s not just in college that Emma makes a difference, she coaches the Welsh FE Colleges team and the South East Wales County squad, she is the South East Wales Junior League Secretary and frequently links with schools and junior teams to develop younger players.
Mum of two Emma was delighted to win the award and said: “I’m thrilled and very proud to win the Teacher of the Year Award and I shall treasure it always. To be able to combine two things that I love – teaching and netball – is brilliant.
“I feel honoured to have received the award and I’m very grateful to Mererid for taking the time and effort to nominate me.”