At the recent New Zealand Secondary School Squash Championships held in Auckland,  School Sport New Zealand and the NZSS Squash Association were able to acknowledge Nic Dann with a Service to School Sport Award.   These awards are presented to people who, as volunteers, have made contributions to secondary school sport that are deemed to be exceptional.

Nic has given her time and expertise to school sport for almost 30 years, when first starting as a teacher at Craighead Diocesan School in Timaru in 1993. During this time Nic has been involved in a number school sports including Volleyball and Mountain Biking. However, Squash is where Nic’s service has been truly exceptional and started with a shift to Marlborough Boys’ College in 2007. Nic immediately set about organising teams to compete at the South Island Secondary Schools Squash Championships as well as the New Zealand Secondary Schools Squash Teams Championships. And if that wasn’t enough, she also coached and managed the girls teams from the nearby Marlborough Girls College at the same time! In 2009 Nic was appointed as one of the two coaches of the Inaugural New Zealand Secondary Schools Squash team. She would continue in this role until 2018 either travelling with the NZSS squash team to Australia, or organising the event here in New Zealand. Nic has been involved with Tasman Secondary Schools Sports Association with the organisation of the TSS squash championships, and when the Tasman district has hosted the South Island Secondary Schools Squash Championships she has assisted with the organisation of those events as well.

School Sport New Zealand would like to thank Nic for the thousands of hours she has devoted to Secondary School Squash and the positive impact she has had on the lives of hundreds of students over many years.

Secondary School Sport would not exist without outstanding individuals like Nic Dann.  Nominations for Service to School Awards, Champion of School Sport and Innovation in School Sport can made at any time by emailing ceo@schoolsportnz.org.nz with supporting documentation.

Criteria can be found here

Article added: Friday 12 August 2022