16th Annual Team UWS Sports Ball

At the beginning of April Team UWS came together for the 16th Annual Sports Ball to celebrate the success of our individuals, and teams, and to thank those whom without their efforts, Team UWS wouldn’t be what it is today. Held at the Village Hotel, Glasgow, the night brought together our teams, individual athletes and UWS staff to honour the dedication and success of our talented athletes.

The evening kicked off with a warm welcome from Team UWS Development Co-Ordinator and host for the evening, Johanthan MacLeod; followed by a recap of this season’s performance delivered by Team UWS Sports President, Freya Rennie.

As with tradition, a number of prestigious awards were handed out during the night, recognising both individual and team accomplishments. Some of the honours included:

Sports Personality of the Year which is the highest accolade that a Team UWS student athlete can achieve during their time at UWS.

Coach of the Year which is awarded to a coach who has shown outstanding commitment and achieved success for their club.

Performance of the Year is given to the club or individual who had an outstanding performance this academic year.

Progressive Club of the Year is awarded to the team who shown substantial development throughout the academic year.

Team of the Year is one of the most coveted awards and is given to them team that has either had outstanding success in competition or has contributed on a high scale to Team UWS.

Sports Personality of the Year went to Snowboarding sports scholar Hollie Smith, who was selected by GB students to compete at the World University Games in Torino Italy, taking home a silver medal for Britain; one of only 3 British athletes to do so.

Presented by Glasgow Gladiators CEO and SportScotland board member Tony McDaid, coach of the year proved to be a competitive category. With a shortlist of coaches from, Pom, Basketball and Netball, it was coach Emma Creighton from the Netball team who took home the title.

With Team UWS being part of breaking a 20 year wait, Performance of the Year was awarded to sports scholar Matthew Waring. The end of 2024 found Matthew in Ibiza, Spain competing at the European Junior Badminton Championships where he battled his way to the medal matches and brough home a Bronze medal for the U19’s Mens singles; the first Scottish Medal for the category in 20 years and a performance deserving of an award.

Sponsored by Pulse Fitness, both Progressive Club of the Year and Team of the Year are highly sought after awards. With a competitive shortlist consisting of three worthy clubs in each category, it was Cheerleading who took home their progressive title and Netball who fought their way to the top for their team of the year win.

Every year the event is organised and ran by the staff of Team UWS and hence a thanks must go to the team who made the evening such a success due their tireless efforts to ensure UWS student athletes have every opportunity to shine both on and off the field, court, range or slopes.

As this academic year comes to a close, we look back on this year’s successes with pride, and forward to the next fixture season with excitement.

Congratulations again to all the nominees, winners, individual athletes and teams who made this year unforgettable.