Her Sport Her Way Winners 2022/23

Winner: Julie Stafford, Female Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Cricket NSW

Julie is a tireless advocate for equal opportunities and ensures that girls and women are at the forefront of all of Cricket NSW participation initiatives and pathways, funding decisions, social media and visibility.

In 2022, she developed and began implementing the Cricket NSW Female Strategy and Action Plan 2022/23 which set clear actions to increase the number of females playing cricket across NSW. 

Julie led an internal group at Cricket NSW to ensure that girls were able to access girls only Cricket Blast programs. In 2022, numbers were up 75% from the previous year and Junior Girls Cricket (aged 5-18) grew 20% as a result.

She developed a new Girls After School Program which saw 600 new girls play cricket in a free, after-school program in Term 2 of 2022 and set up WiCKETS Women in Cricket Communities.  This online community and YouTube channel hosts forums and networking events connecting local volunteers and encouraging more women to be on committees.

She also initiated the $30,000 She Can Play Grants program to ensure that regional and Indigenous girls get access to free coaching and can develop their coaching skills.

Winner: Maria Nordstrom, CEO, Basketball NSW

Maria had an exceptional 2022 as a key driver of the record-breaking 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Sydney last September. Maria was a Director of the Local Organising Committee and led the Legacy Committee.

The impact of the World Cup was monumental nationally and globally and will be for many years to come. It had the highest attendance ever in the history of the competition and it was first time that FIBA recorded a profit from the tournament. 

The tournament created new benchmarks for women’s basketball with a broadcast audience of 210 million, an increase of 130 per cent compared with 2018, and this also equated to a five-fold increase in social media from 2018.

Maria committed BNSW to increasing the engagement of young women in all levels of basketball, including those from rural and remote areas, as well as Aboriginal athletes and wheelchair athletes.

By the end of 2022 the BNSW “I am a Girl” program had over 4,200 new participants and the Leadership Scholarship Program had 314 additional women.

Young girls from all over NSW were invited to experience the sport at the FIBA World Cup, with past Olympians running skills clinics and encouraging young girls to continue their involvement in the sport.

Under Maria’s leadership and strategic direction, Basketball NSW has made a remarkable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic with a record 85,000 registered members in 2022. 

There has been a significant increase in the numbers of young women attending coaching clinics and taking on administrative roles, such as trained statisticians and score table officials.

Maria’s efforts to partner with associations, councils and State Government were instrumental in gaining funding to make local facilities more female friendly in metro and regional NSW. Her commitment to this space has also seen 42 new courts completed across NSW.

Winner: Abbie, Her Way

Thirteen year-old Abbie founded her on-line magazine Her Way after she noticed a lack of reporting on women’s sport compared to men’s. Over 2022, Her Way has evolved into an online media platform, with a growing following of over 10,000 people.

Throughout 2022, Her Way covered women’s sporting events, notably the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, and interviewed high profile athletes, including Madison de Rozario, Lauren Jackson, Alyssa Healy, and Emma McKeon.

She has intentionally profiled para-athletes and para-sports to raise awareness of these sports in the wider community.

By the end of 2022, magazine and merchandise sales enabled Abbie to donate over $10,000 to UNICEF Australia’s ‘Empower Girls Through Sport’ appeal, which gives girls in Sri Lanka the opportunity to play cricket.

In Australia, where only 10% of sports journalists are female, our winner is committed to raising the profile of women’s sport, so that more people watch it, female athletes get the recognition they deserve, and more girls and women participate in sport.

Winner: Anupreet Bedi, Owner/Operator, Swimz, Guildford

Anu opened a swim school to get multicultural women and their children into swimming as a lifesaving skill and a sport. This has developed into a training and employment program for women from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who have faced domestic violence.

In 2022, Anu transitioned over 40 multicultural girls and young women from the Learn-to-Swim programs into pre-squads’ and squads’ programs. Many of them came from families where the parents hadn’t learnt to swim.

Also in 2022, she trained 35 staff to qualify them as swimming teachers which included helping them to get CPR certificates and Working with Children Checks. The relationship doesn’t end there with Anu providing mentoring and assistance to gain casual, part-time, and full-time employment as swim teachers at her school and across NSW. 

Our Local Champion has removed barriers for women and girls from multicultural backgrounds to learn to swim.  By providing further training and employment opportunities in sport they have increased their independence and been empowered to take up further opportunities.

Pam Abel, Senior Activities Officer, Police Citizens Youth Clubs NSW

Pam is a proud Gamilaraay woman from Walgett, who has been instrumental in improving sporting opportunities, developing talent and removing financial, transport and administration barriers for Aboriginal youth.

In 2022, our Local Champion coached the Walgett Dragons’ Ladies and the Girls U15s League-Tag teams as well as several underage boys’ Rugby League teams.   

She coordinated the trials, training and attendance of the Rugby League 7’s Gamilaraay male and female teams to the PCYC Nations of Origin as well as initiating new competitions for Mixed Netball, Pickleball and Touch Football.

She ran PCYC activities, school holiday sports programs, gala days and travelled thousands of kilometres to run weekly outreach school sport activities in the region.

There is also the crucial, behind-the-scenes work that is needed to remove barriers for local kids and their families.  These include:

• helping them to obtain identity documents and complete registration forms,
• organising transport so young women living in fringe communities can safely attend sport,
• consulting with the community to co-design programs which meet local needs,
• encouraging and supporting girls and young women to get involved, try new sport activities, and participate on a regular basis.

Through her role at PCYC and work in her own time, Pam is a role model, mentor, coach, referee, advocate, and leader, committed to improving sport participation opportunities for girls and young women in her region.

Winner: Football NSW

In 2022, Football NSW was successful in securing a $10 million investment into female football as part of the NSW Football Legacy Program, ahead of the co-hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

The legacy program has already delivered funding for 24 facility projects and 58 participation programs to meet the needs of the fast-growing female football community. Seventy-nine scholarships were awarded to women to support their development in coaching, refereeing, and volunteer administration.

In addition, the Daughters and Dads Football pilot was filled to capacity, allowing 50 families to strengthen the bond between daughters and their father figures.

In 2022, female participation reached 26% and programs for women and girls such as the Girls Love Football program for 12-17 year olds, and Kick-On for Women for those looking to fit social sport into a busy adult life. Female coaching numbers increased 9%, with a 39% increase in women completing advanced coaching courses.

Football NSW’s Strategic Plan launched in late 2022, has a goal of gender parity spanning all elements of the sport including player opportunities, non-playing participation, and visibility.

To top off the year, the first NAIDOC Cup event to showcase Aboriginal players was delivered in partnership with Northern NSW Football.  The cup featured Aboriginal male and female teams of players aged between 14 and 16 years along with Aboriginal coaches.

Winner: Suzy Ellis, Tennis Administrator and Coach, Tennis NSW

Following the founding of the Women’s Tennis Association by Billie Jean King in 1973, Suzy was a founding member of the Australian Women’s Tennis Association (AWTA) now known as the Women’s Tennis Foundation.

She secured $80,000 in sponsorship, most of which was used as prize money for AWTA tournaments. This prize money allowed Australian women players to travel overseas and continue moving up the professional ranks.

Suzy proved that women’s sport could leverage commercial investment which was the catalyst for Tennis Australia to create more professional playing opportunities for Australian women and helped to make Tennis one of the most gender equitable sports in Australia.

She remains an active player on the Seniors Tennis circuit, runs her own tennis school and is the Senior Vice President of Tennis Northern Beaches which has 16 clubs across the area.

Suzy’s role with AWTA was a significant milestone in developing tennis as we know it in Australia today.  Her leadership, innovation and challenging of the status quo, remains an inspiration to women leaders in the sport today. Her visibility in these roles has also inspired the countless women and girls in Tennis.

Winner: Hayley Todd, Head of Women's and Schools Football, Football NSW

At a time when international football pathways for women were almost non-existent, Hayley was one of the players who paved the way for Australian women footballers to explore careers overseas.

After a major injury, she turned to administration at Football NSW (FNSW) in 2006. Here, she was central to the introduction of Female Football Week, a celebratory initiative which has now been adopted across the country.

In 2016, this Trailblazer became the first woman in the role of Head of Women’s Football and Schools and was responsible for driving the strategic direction of the female game. 

She also took on an important mentor role for young women players, volunteers, coaches, and administrators. Under her stewardship, female participation in football has increased to over 26% of participants.

Hayley has been central to negotiations with stakeholders for the $10 million NSW Football Legacy Program, ensuring the funding can produce maximum benefits to the entire community.

She is a Board member of the Macarthur Football Association Board and led the development and implementation of the Football for Women and Girls in Macarthur Strategic Plan, which was launched in 2022.

Her legacy is demonstrated through her leadership as a player, and the results of her strategic direction at state and community level. Her decades worth of commitment to female football and mentorship has helped build a cohort of future female leaders across the wider community who will drive the sport forward over coming generations.

Winner: Ellie Cole OAM, Paralympic Swimmer, Swimming NSW

Our third Trailblazer joined the Australian swim team at the age of 14, and 16 years later at the Tokyo Paralympic Games became Australia's most decorated female Paralympian with 17 medals - six gold, five silver and six bronze. 

Having held leadership positions in Swimming Australia and the Swimmers Association, she has been instrumental in ensuring higher levels of equality across able bodied and Paralympic athletes. 

This includes campaigning for equal incentive payments for para-athletes – something that finally occurred at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

In June 2021, Swimming Australia commissioned an independent report to better understand the experiences of women and girls within the sport.

This Trailblazer is a member of the Swimming Australia Implementation Group which provides leadership and oversight to implementing the report’s recommendations and championing change for women and girls in the sport of swimming in Australia.

Having retired from swimming last year, she is now focused on leadership positions including as the Australian Team General Manager - 2023 Youth Commonwealth Games, the Sports Integrity Australia Athlete Advisory Group as well as representing Swimming Australia on the Brisbane 2032 Legacy Committee.

Her impact in and out of the pool has made her a trailblazer and role model for women and girls in swimming, the Paralympic movement and sport more broadly.