Lara was awarded the Service to Secondary School Sports award at the ASB College Sport Young Sports Person of the Year awards evening last week.


Since 1997 Lara has committed herself to developing and improving Secondary School sport.

Lara was employed by College Sport from 1997 – 2011. From the humble beginnings based out of the ASB Stadium, when entries were faxed and posted into the office.

Lara also gave up her own time to coach secondary schools in her passion of softball and Waka Ama. Of the 42 sanctioned sports there is only a handful that Lara has not been involved in.

Lara’s 15 -year employment was at a time when Secondary School Sport was going through unparalleled growth. Increasingly teachers were opting out of sports administration, new sporting codes were being added to an already busy programme, and without Lara’s energy, sense of humour, enthusiasm, vision and management skills, College Sport would not be the organisation it has become today.

Lara worked tirelessly to increase the media coverage of Secondary School Students, regularly appearing on Radio Sport reporting on the activities of the week, also writing articles for the College Sport Column in the NZ Herald.

With every sport she has looked after she always went over and above to ensure it was run to a high level, always striving on ways to improve the events and experiences for the participants.

The Auckland Secondary schools cycling team time trial series that Lara was heavily involved in now boasts over 130 teams, and is an event that is envied by many throughout New Zealand.

The Auckland Secondary School Waka Ama event under Lara’s guidance grew too large from the original venue of Onehunga Basin and is now held in Orakei Basin where the recent Junior event boasted over 100 teams.

Lara also started the New Zealand Secondary Schools Waka Ama regatta over 10 years ago has it grown from strength to strength.

In recent times Lara has been instrumental in the success of the Find Your Field of Dreams project in Secondary Schools, offering guidance and support to each school.

It is with great pleasure that we present Lara with this Service to Secondary School Sport Award.

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