Paige Blake named Most Outstanding Young Person of the Year for 2021

Paige has shown her leadership quality in many ways throughout 2021. As a player she has been in leadership positions for some time within her school and North Harbour Hockey Associations (NHHA) sides showing her standing as a leader and a player within her year group.

For such a young person her contribution to coaching and mentoring of her peers has been immense. She has been a role model at Westlake Girls High School, as a coach of the junior sides as well as offering coach support for the student coaches.

Paige is also one of the youngest volunteer player coaches at club level in Auckland, where she coaches one of the Takapuna womens teams. She can relate to people of all ages, has the ability to create safe learning environment, and shows an outstanding level of generosity by wanting to give back to the game. Paige is also required to deliver trainings, pre-game and half time talks as a player-coach, which demonstrates her competency.

She is an honest person with the special ability to grow relationships with anyone. Her ability to have a conversation whether she has just met you or has known you for a long time is something that is very special, you will always get a hello in the clubrooms and she will always make time for you.

Throughout the most recent lockdown, NHHA was faced with a number of challenges which required extra support from their community. When in need of a last minute volunteer,Paige was more than happy to volunteer her time to get NHHA up and running again.

Paige is known for her desire to continuously improve, not only as a player but also as a coach. She has taken part in a range of coach development opportunities demonstrating her determination to be the best she can be in all areas of hockey. It is outstanding to see a young person understand the influence they have as a coach and recognise opportunities to work on their skillset.