Celebrating success at the biggest ever Sports Ball

Sports Ball returned to Newcastle Civic Centre on Sunday 5 May, recognising the achievements of our students over the past year. With over 420 students, sports staff, Northumbria Alumni, and event sponsors in attendance - the event was the biggest Sports Ball to date.

The evening was all about celebrating students and staff involved in Northumbria Sport over the 2023-24 academic year.

The evening kicked off with a drinks reception where students enjoyed a complimentary welcome drink from Redbull. Head of Sport, Daryl Dixon introduced the evening proceedings and VP Sport Harvey Burn kickstarted the awards ceremony with the ‘Commitment to Sport’ award, sponsored by Chartwells. This trophy was awarded to Thomas O’Fee for his continuous involvement with Northumbria Sport, he’s been a BUCS intern, Kids Camp coach as well as being heavily involved in Tennis.

Next up was the ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award sponsored by Xerox. Paddy Kendall and Henry Brewster were crowned winners for their voluntary coaching of the Northumbria hockey club.   

The next award on the list was ‘Coach of the Year’, sponsored by Arch. Amongst tough competition, Head of Rugby Union, Joe Cain took the trophy, after a hugely successful season of Rugby Union.

The award for ‘Individual Performance of the Year’ sponsored by Tass followed, with Taekwondo athlete, Simone Abley taking the trophy, after yet another successful year at the winter and spring BUCS Taekwondo Championships winning gold.

Our ‘Intern of the Year’ award came next in proceedings, this one also being sponsored by Sodexo. Andrew Leech won the award after being recognised for all of his hard work being an S&C intern.

Up next was a brand-new Sports Ball award, ‘Varsity Performance of the Year’ which sponsored by New Balance. Badminton W1 became the award winners for this prestigious title for their successful performance against Newcastle.

Up next was ‘Team of the Year’ sponsored by JH Coaches. American Football were named winners following them becoming league and cup winners.

Our ‘Club Committee Member of the Year’ award followed, being secured by Cheerleading President, Georgia Morris, Sponsored by Northumbria Students’ Union, this award recognised all of the hard work Georgia has put into leading the club over the year.

The penultimate award of the night was ‘Club of the Year’, sponsored by MVP. The win this year went to Rugby League after an extremely successful season with their M1, M2 and W1 being crowned National Champions.

The final award of the night was this year's ‘Sports Personality of the Year.’ Up against two other tough candidates, Football Social Media Sec Luka Matijevic took the trophy, wrapping up the awards for the night.

It was a brilliant night for sport and a massive congratulations goes out to all of our nominees and winners. And also a huge thank you to our event sponsors for supporting the event.

We hope you all had a brilliant night celebrating success and are proud of all of your achievements. See you all next year!