Junior Sports Personality of the year
Andrei Hernandez-Cutchon
Andrei Hernandez-Cutchon is a 15-year-old captain and setter of the Reading Aces Juniors A team that was undefeated in the last season of Berkshire Volleyball Association (BVA) league. He has been at the club for the last three seasons and played in BVA men’s Division 1. He was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) of last year’s BVA Division 1 men’s tournament. He has also represented South East Under 15s in volleyball England inter-regionals for the second straight year. He also plays libero for newly formed Reading Aces Men’s National Volleyball League (NVL) squad, currently playing in Division 3. This year Andrei also played for the Team Philippines at the All Nations tournament in London, winning a bronze medal.
Helper and Loyalty Award
David Marshall
David Marshall has been a volunteer in local grass roots football for over 30 years. In 1991 he became an officer with the Reading & District Sunday Football Leagues (R&DSFL) serving on their Cup Competitions Committee. He then became the league secretary in 1996, a role which he continues to undertake today. With over 60 adult teams in the R&DSFL, David has shown great dedication and commitment to the member clubs in his pivotal role as league secretary for the last 28 years.
Clubperson of the Year
Joe Frew
University student Joe Frew has shown outstanding commitment to Reading Athletic Club. He joined the club in 2017 as a beginner U15 athlete and developed his skills over the full range of athletics disciplines, while always being keen to compete for the club. He has moved on from being a great all-round athlete to also being girls’ team manager, a coach, a qualified official, including starter, and committee member. He is always looking for ways to improve things at the club, with his latest innovation being to record presentations for junior athletes explaining how all the winter competitions work and linked to a form to collect availability. He still competes for the club to maximise points and was a vital part of the senior team gaining promotion this summer.
Katie Henderson Memorial – Commitment to Sport
Prospect Junior parkrun
Junior parkrun is a free weekly 2km event for children aged 4-14 to walk, jog, run, and volunteer. Children can participate with a parent, or on their own. Each week the event is marshalled by a dedicated team of 30 volunteers, with a commitment that the event with take place at 9am every Sunday, for free, for everyone, all year round, whatever the weather.
After a year of planning and fund raising the first junior parkrun at Prospect Park was held on Sunday 5 March 2024 with 88 children, countless parents, and 42 volunteers taking part. As of event no.19 152 volunteers have volunteered 558 times. They are the first to arrive at 8am, and the last to pack away and leave at 10am. The young athletes also love to get involved, whether that’s helping with the warm-up, marshalling with a parent, or handing out stickers. The events have welcomed 405 unique young runners, who have run 1,386 times, achieving 338 Personal Bests. While some young athletes have done other parkruns elsewhere, 119 of them ran their first ever parkrun at Prospect Park.
The organisers’ ambition is to break down barriers and make Prospect junior parkrun available to all children in Reading. They have already engaged with 32 primary schools in Reading, including Brookfields special needs school to see how the junior parkrun can be accessible to their students, as well as Scouting and Guiding movements and sporting teams in Reading.
www.parkrun.org.uk/prospect-juniors/news/
