by Julie Kissick
A WOMEN’S football coach with an exemplary record for volunteering his time to support others has been awarded Outstanding Student of the Year.
BSc Football Coaching and Performance student Ryan Moon, 22, from Crickhowell, is employed as a coach at Yeovil Town Ladies Football Club.
He was chosen from all the shortlisted nominees at the University of South Wales Sport Recognition Awards ceremony at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.
His academic achievement, professional development and performance in sport formed the basis of the selection, including his ‘commitment towards honing his skills and unrelenting dedication to learning’.
Among other notable achievements, he completed more than 750 hours professional practice during this academic year.
He also volunteered to support other students by being a student mentor and was a regular at university open days, giving up his spare time to share his experiences of USW with potential students.
“This award means such a lot to me. It’s been really hard work balancing my studies and my work outside but it’s clearly been worth it,” said Moon.
“I hadn’t realised how busy I’ve been until it was all read out!
“I’ve had tremendous support from the university though, and there’s such a lot of people who’ve helped me along the way, especially Dr Ceri Bowley and Grant Kalahar.
“And my early inspiration was James Rowberry, my coach at Newport. He’s now working at Cardiff City. He supported me and my ambitions and gave me a good work ethic which I’ve tried to carry on.”
BBC Wales football correspondent Rob Phillips was the compare for the evening, where 12 awards were presented to students, partners and alumni.
Two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medal winner Stephen Jenkins was inducted into the USW Hall of Fame.
The table tennis star is a psychology graduate from what was the University of Glamorgan, (now USW), and is now a full-time coach for Table Tennis Wales.
Jenkins is a British team champion and British singles bronze medallist and this year he helped coach the Wales table tennis team at the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast.
The winners were:
Year 1 Academic Student of the Year: Rafael Serrano
Year 2 Academic Student of the Year: Rafal Galazka
Year 3 Academic Student of the Year: Hannah Cullen
Masters Academic Student of the Year: Ioan Paval
Best Sports Journalist: Tom Pritchard
Coach of the Year: Mark Hutton
Female Sports Person of the Year: Hannak Bluck
Male Sports Person of the Year: Ashley Morris
Professional Practice Award: Aaron Altman
Partner of the Year: Pontypridd RFC
Team of the Year: Women’s Rugby 1st XV
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