Sports teachers net top awards

Two Branksome women have been honoured at the highest level in their sport at the Vitality Goalden Globe Netball awards in a streamed presentation attended by Clare Balding and Denise Lewis amongst others.

Louise Burgan beat six other nominees to win the National Teacher Award for Outstanding Contribution in Schools for her work at Talbot Heath School. Since joining in 2015, Louise has provided netball coaching and organises teams across both the junior and senior school, including a major commitment to after school matches and training.

Talbot Heath have netball teams across the age range, from Under 8’s through to Under 16’s. Many of these girls go on to play for local, county and regional teams. Louise has provided opportunity for all abilities, with students having the opportunity to play local school leagues, National competitions as well as taking two teams to Loughborough in 2019 to play in the Schools World Cup. Prior to lockdown the Under 14 team reached the National Schools finals finishing top 6 in the country. Many of her senior students are in Superleague Team Bath’s Performance pathway and one was selected and played for Bath in the U17 Netball Performance League Tournament. Youth Sport Trust CEO Ali Oliver in making the award praised Louise’s “ability to bring new confidence to players and to aim high”.

Lindsay Impett, who recently moved back to the area, was given a Special Award in recognition of making such a success of the Vitality Netball World Cup (VNWC) held in Liverpool in July 2019. Lindsay was Event Director for the sixteen-team competition which included teams from as far afield as Jamaica, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. The event created a profit for the sport of more than 1.2 million pounds, sold 112,000 tickets and was watched by more than six million viewers worldwide. The Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 was awarded the accolade of Best Sporting Event 2019 at the recent Sports Industry Awards.

Louise Burgan Lindsay Impett and Jude, the VNWC mascot