Council sports awards to make welcome return at Derry's Guildhall

Prizewinners at the 2018/19 Cou cil sports awards with then Mayor, Councillor Michaela Boyle, guest speakers Shirley McCay and Stuart Thompson and MC Denise Watson.

The event will be hosted by Derry City and Strabane District Council, in partnership with the District Sports Forum, on Thursday May 30th and aims to publicly recognise the individuals, teams and clubs that contributed to local sport over the last 12 months.

Winners of the 15 categories will be announced on the night and nominees are now being sought now for athletes and coaches who reside within the Council area.

The awards were last hosted before the Covid pandemic in 2019 and Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Patricia Logue, welcomed their return.

“The Derry Strabane Sports Awards are Council’s way of acknowledging and rewarding the achievements of our local sports fraternity over the last 12 months,” she said, “It has been another vintage year for sport with local clubs and individuals shining at local, national and international level and it’s important we celebrate and recognise the often unseen work that goes into achieving that.”

Nominations are accepted from organisations, local sports clubs, schools, youth clubs and individuals. Applicants and nominees should note only the information included on nomination forms will go forward for assessment by the awards panel.

To be an eligible candidate, sports people must be a resident of the Council area and all nominees must be involved in an amateur capacity in a sport that is recognised by Sport NI and/or the Irish Sports Council. The nominator, the nominee, a team representative and a guest will receive an invitation to the awards ceremony.

Nominations must be submitted online by Friday, February 2nd at 4pm. For more information and to make a nomination visit derrystrabane.com/sportsawards

The categories for the 2023-24 Awards are: Coach of the Year, Community Coach of the Year, Children’s Coach of the Year, Young Coach of the Year, Female Coach of the Year, Disability Coach of the Year, Sports Star of the Year, Young Male Sports Star of the Year, Young Female Sports Star of the Year, School Team of the Year, Team of the Year, Sports Star of the Year with a disability, Special Award, Club of the Year, Hall of Fame.