Volunteer humbled by peak body award

The dedication of a co-founder of the Karratha Water Polo Association has seen her named volunteer of the year by the sport’s peak WA body.

KWPA secretary Anouska Angove was this month announced the winner of Water Polo WA’s prestigious Beaurepaire Memorial Award for being its best volunteer in the 2016/17 season.

Having played water polo since the age of 15 and represented country Australia at an international level, Angove co-founded the sport’s first association in Karratha in 2013 and has served as its secretary since formation as well as being secretary of Water Polo WA Country Incorporated.

She is also a coach, umpire, bench official and grant writer within the association, helped set up Flippa Ball and junior water polo programs in the inland Pilbara, captained the Karratha representative team and led co-ordination of two country championship events held locally.

Angove said she was proud of the progress the association had made since it started and humbled for her volunteering to be recognised with an award whose past winners include several ex-Olympians.

“I love what I do and I wouldn’t change it or take back any time, but it’s very humbling to get recognised for it,” she said.

“Volunteers do make sport, and without volunteers you don’t have local sport, so I suppose it’s giving something back to the people who put all their time and effort into making the sport happen.”

Angove’s husband Justin is another past winner of the same award, having jointly received the nod in 2014 for setting up the local association and bringing the Australian Country Championships national competition to Karratha.

Water Polo WA general manager Ben Haywood said Angove was a deserving winner of the highly regarded reward.

“The award has been going since 1957 and is important to Water Polo WA as volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport and are the reason why we have grown over the years,” he said.

“The board voted (Angove) unanimously as a winner due to her service to water polo in regional areas of WA.”

The KWPA season is due to start this week.