Minka Woolley is the 2021 Hockey Tasmania Volunteer of the Year

Hockey Tasmania is delighted to announce that Minka Woolley has been awarded the Hockey Tasmania Volunteer of the Year Award for 2021.

Congratulations to Minka and thank you to those who sent in nominations for her.

Minka Woolley has a long and extensive history of volunteerism with hockey at every level of our sport, from the grassroots all the way up to its pinnacle - the Olympics. She is heavily involved in supporting our umpiring and officiating community in Tasmania, especially on the North West Coast. She offers guidance for new and developing umpires, leadership and advice for our established officiating pool, helps support and develop our national pool of umpires, and was the Umpires Manager for the hockey tournament at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 (her fifth Olympics overall).

In 2021, on top of representing her state and country on the global stage, she volunteered tirelessly for the Tasmanian Hockey community in the officiating and umpiring space. In general she was always there to provide support and advice to all our umpires and officials on rules and explanations for interpretations, as well as umpiring and officiating for our senior and junior competitions and being a mentor to all our umpires.

More specifically, in 2021 Minka was the Umpire Coordinator for North West Hockey and was again an active member of the Hockey Tasmania Officiating Committee, organised teleconference meetings with umpires and coaches throughout the season, ran club officiating forums along the coast, and ran quizzes on the umpires facebook page to help umpires with their decision making and interpretation.

Minka Woolley is a standout example of what can be achieved at all levels as a volunteer and she is an outstanding recipient of the 2021 Hockey Tasmania Volunteer of the Year Award.

We also congratulate the other nominees for this year's award :

• Elizabeth (Liz) Cornelius
• Ally White
• David Hickman
• Suzie Calvert
• Kym Lewis
• Kathryn McCann

*Minka will be officially presented with her trophy early in 2022.

The Volunteer of the Year Award is decided by public nominations from members of the Tasmania hockey community with a winner chosen on the strength of the nominations by a sub-committee of the Hockey Tasmania Board.