Ellie Blackburn was honoured as the Sportsperson of the Year at the Victorian Government’s Community Sport andRecreation Awards. 67667
By Jarrod Potter
ELLIE Blackburn capped off an amazing year of football by winning the Minister’s Award for Sportsperson of the Year at the 2011 Victorian Government’s Community Sport and Recreation Awards.
Blackburn, 16, from Endeavour Hills, won the award for her amazing season playing football and her volunteer work promoting the sport to young girls.
Blackburn represented Victoria, played in Hallam Senior College’s state girls football victory at Victoria Park and played for Victoria Youth Girls, Metropolitan Region and Berwick in the Youth Girls and Victorian Women’s Football League (VWFL) competitions.
Blackburn was nominated for the award by AFL Victoria Female Football Development manager Chyloe Kurdas, and the young football prodigy didn’t expect to win the award.
“I was nominated by Chyloe Kurdas and the awards night itself was really good,” Blackburn said. “There being eight different categories for the awards including the Sportsperson of the Year which I was lucky enough to receive. I had no idea I was going to win it, I was very surprised.”
The Victorian Minister for Sports Hugh Delahunty presented Blackburn with the award and read off her achievements list in football.
“He read out all my achievements I had this year and a bit about the other stuff I do, helping with out the young girls to learn to play footy,” Blackburn said.
“He was very happy for what I’ve done and was really supportive and encouraged me to continue doing what I have been doing.”
With a large list of achievements to choose from, Blackburn said her favourite of the bunch this year was being a part of the Victorian team to win the Under 18 National Youth Girls Championships.
“Winning the national carnival at state for the under-18s cause that was a really tough game for us,” Blackburn said. “All the other states were supporting Western Australia, so we basically took on the rest of Australia which was great to win.”
On top of starring for Victoria, Hallam and Berwick on the field, Blackburn was part of a volunteer program at Hallam Senior College to help local schools promote footy to younger girls.
“With our school, we helped out at Maramba Primary School running Auskick clinics for them,” Blackburn said. “We taught the Grade 4 and 5 girls how to play footy. It was really good going down there and teaching them and getting them all excited about footy.”
In 2012, Blackburn is looking to gain selection for the Victorian team as well as being part of the AFL Youth Girls high performance academy on top of her final year of school.
“I’ve got Year 12 coming up next year, so I hope I can study hard for that, do well and pass all my subjects.
“Hopefully, I’ll be in the state team again, and with the academy we’ll be playing more games with that and train with the high performance academy and hopefully get to play on the MCG.
“I’m really looking forward to being a part of that program.”
