We received dozens of nominations following our request for you to name your “Community Club of the Year”, and the top three will be joining us at the Ospreys End of Season Awards Dinner on Monday.
Earlier this month Ospreysin the Community asked the public to nominate a club they thought deserved to be named as the Ospreys Community Club of the Year. It wasn’t just about the amount of silverware they had won, we were looking for a club who are a central part of their area, or were working hard to provide rugby for everyone.
We received dozens of nominations with 15 different clubs from around the region being put forward with lots of reasons as to why their supporters thought they deserved the accolade. Ospreys in the Community staff along with board members and players scoured the applications and a shortlist was decided upon.
The three shortlisted clubs are:
- Morriston RFC
- Tondu RFC
- Vardre RFC
We received several nominations for Morriston RFC. They were highly commended for being a family friendly club who had gone from having fractured Mini and Junior teams to a whole unit and who went above and beyond with children coming from 14 different schools. They were also recognized for the involvement of women at the club, having a thriving womens team as well as female coaches in their Junior section. We were particularly impressed that alongside their success on the field they were putting a lot of effort into events off field and ways to get children off the streets and involved in the club.
Tondu RFC were described as “phenomenal’ in one nomination due to their efforts around Junior rugby. The set up of the Mini Wheelers has been incredibly successful with more children than ever playing at the club. Thanks to their hard work this season, next year will be the first year in the clubs history to have a team in every age group. There have been notable successes in both cups and leagues across the ages as well as a working pathway that sees players progressing through the ranks to go onto playing in higher levels of rugby. But it’s the off field efforts that really caught the attention of the judges, from the club almost closing they have put significant time and money into turning things around to become a sustainable family club at the heart of the community.
“Welcoming” and “Inclusive” were words repeatedly used to describe Vardre RFC in the several nominations we received for them to be our Community Club of the Year. There were comments about how supportive everyone involved at Vardre were and how it felt like a big family with a very friendly atmosphere. The judges noted that they were impressed with the sense of community at the club, with the senior section helping out with the younger teams to pass their knowledge along to the next generation and the efforts going to provide the young players with lots of experiences and opportunities to go on tour and play in different festivals.
We look forward to welcoming representatives from all three shortlisted teams to the Ospreys End of Season Awards Dinner on Monday night and to seeing the winner revealed.
Other Community Awards that will be presented on the night are:
- WCR Youth Most Promising Player
- WCR Player of the Year
- Women’s U18s Most Promising Player
- Womens Player of the Year – Elli Norkett Memorial Award
- Community School of the Year Award
- Community Ospreys Player of the Year
Ospreys in the Community would like to thank all the sponsors who are supporting our awards.