Sports Awards
Each year, at our Sports Awards Evening, we celebrate the many sporting successes and achievements of girls across the Senior School.
We were delighted to welcome Lydia Greenway – the Ashes, World Cup and World 20/20 Championship winning cricketer – as our guest speaker for the evening. Lydia has since gone on to form the all-female cricket academy, Cricket for Girls, and has been leading masterclasses with South Hampstead staff and pupils, as cricket – one of the fastest-growing women’s sports – once again becomes one of our key summer sports. She spoke to the girls about the importance of setting goals and, more importantly, staying motivated when faced with setbacks. Drawing on her own experiences of being deselected when complacency crept in, she encouraged the girls to work on their weaknesses and implement positive, focused actions.
“You are very lucky to have so many sporting opportunities here at South Hampstead – embrace them. But whatever you go on to do in life, don’t shy away from the uncomfortable. Feel the fear and do it anyway.”
Prizes were presented for excellence and improvement across a range of sports in every year group, including awards for contribution to sport and coaching and good sportsmanship. The outgoing and newly appointed pupil sports captains shared some of the incredible sporting highlights of the year, from professional coaching masterclasses and workshops to a growing collection of silverware for the trophy cabinet.
Well done to all our prizewinners, with a special congratulations to our team of the year: the U14 ski squad and national schools champions, Freya, Hannah, Maddy, Millie and Momo in Year 7 and 8. To end the evening, the multi-talented Stella in Year 10 was announced as the 2019 Sportswoman of the Year. Stella not only plays county-level cricket and hockey, but has also played against MCC as part of the GDST Select XI and is trialling for the GDST Hockey select squad (some 8000 GDST pupils nationally are eligible for selection in each sport). Stella also performs in gym and dance, represents the school at athletics and contributes much to school life – a well-deserved winner who was thrilled to get her bat signed by Lydia, one of her cricketing heroes.
An ethos of inclusive excellence pervades our outstanding sporting provision at South Hampstead. While squad training, expert coaching, competitive fixtures and our Going for Gold programme help to support and develop our elite squads and individual performers, we also focus on providing sporting opportunities for all (through initiatives such as our recent Sport For All Week) to enable every girl to find her sporting niche.