CCSA had 2 of our members recognised at the 2020-2021 Softball Awards Night held at the Liverpool Catholic Club on Sunday 28th November 2021.

Naomi Muller - Wolvettes Softball Club - Community Volunteer Award

Noni as she is known around the grounds has been the Registrar for Central Coast Softball Association for the last 4 seasons. With the uncertainty of Covid, late registrations and reshuffling of players by clubs, spent countless hours helping our clubs with the registration process.  CCSA clubs had multiple new registrars who had not used the SportsTG (now GameDay) system and she instructed and led these registrars to ensure a smooth registration process occurred. Noni worked closely with our treasurer Di to ensure clubs were invoiced correctly and figures to Softball NSW were provided on time. Noni was able to get the draw done including umpiring, grounds and canteen duty allocations.  

When our Canteen Manager resigned just prior to start of the 2020-21 season, Noni put her hand up, obtained her Food Handling Certificate and got the canteen up and running until a new canteen manager could be found. This meant giving up coaching her ladies team but Noni did it without hesitation putting the association before herself. Once the new canteen manager started Noni stayed on as a 2IC so that the canteen ran smoothly for the whole season. Noni worked closely with the canteen manager organising and picking up stock throughout the week and where needed during the day on a Saturday.

Noni was an integral part of our volunteer committee for the U10 State Championships in May 2021. Noni organised many deliveries and co-ordinated the volunteers to ensure the weekend ran smoothly. She also spent both days in the canteen willingly giving up her weekend for the players, parents to help the association with a successful tournament.

Noni was the recipient of the CCSA Affiliate Person of the Year at our end of 2020/21 season presentation.

Noni is always willing to help others and is an asset to not only our association but softball in general.

Dianne Barrymore - Peninsula Ducks Softball Club - Distinguished Service Award

Di is a fixture at the softball field. She is the Founder and President of our club Peninsula Ducks as well as the current Treasurer for Central Coast. Over the last 12 months Di has coached, scored, umpired, done grounds duties, helped in the canteen, run come and try days, run meetings and helped our very new club find its feet. Di is always looking for grants to help in reducing costs for our new players. Last season she was able to get a grant which allowed our new junior members to receive a glove, shirt, cap and socks for free and our seniors a shirt and cap for free. Di is always one of the 1st to arrive and always the last to leave both training and competition days. She is always willing to help out clubs and encourages all players and teams regardless of ability or club. Di was the head coach of the CCSA U10 girls rep team this past season. Di runs our club and CCSA social media pages including our website. She even made a video to help CCSA to boost registrations of last year.  

Di has been involved in softball since the 1982/83 season. Di was a member of CCSA from 1982-early 1990 before moving to Lake Macquarie for 2 seasons and then returning to CCSA until the end of the 2006/07 season. Di then transferred to Newcastle Softball Association in 2007 after the death of her mother as she was living up there and it was closer to work. Di started the now Maitland City Softball Club in 2011 and remained with them until returning to CCSA at the start of the 2015/16 season.  In 2018 Di started our club Peninsula Ducks and remains with the club to this date. Di was part of 2 Aussie Sparks tours  - Boys 2014 Tour to New Zealand and Girls 2016 Tour to LA/Hawaii.

Di has been part of committees since she turned 18 with various clubs in both Newcastle and CCSA as well as on the CCSA committee.

Di obtained her Basic Level Coaching accreditation in 1991, Level O in 1995, Level 1 (changed to level 3 but is now foundation coach) in 1999 and Performance Talent Battery Coach in 2018. Di also holds her Level 1 Umpiring accreditation and Level 2 Scoring accreditation.

Di has coached, scored and umpired for numerous club teams since 1986 and representative teams since 1999. She was an assistant coach with the Hunter Academy of Sport from 1999-2009, was a helper/assistant coach at multiple state camps in the late 1990's and early 2000's, has coached multiple NSW Country teams at both Australian Regional Championships and International Friendship Series. Di has run various school clinics and gala days and helps our local schools with umpiring where work commitments allow.

Di has been the person we can all go to for information and has vast knowledge of softball and it's etiquette. Di has a passion for softball that is not seen very often and it is evident through her actions and commitment to the sport of softball. 

Congratulations and well done ladies!!