The Unsung Hero award recognises the individuals who do all the work in the background to make things happen.
They keep the club activities going and take the club to the next level. Often, these individuals go beyond the call of duty to improve clubs, solve problems, and create an all-round good environment in which club members can thrive.
Got your tickets for the big event yet? Reserve them for free, and join us to see who is crowned Unsung Hero at the Sports Awards Event on Monday 17th June.
Here's more about each of our fantastic nominees:
1. Belinda Harrison, Women’s Lacrosse Club
Belinda stands out as a prime candidate for the Unsung Hero nomination owing to her remarkable dedication and contributions to CUWLC over the past 3 years.
Firstly, her commitment to the blues team over the past three years, since her first year, demonstrates her unwavering passion for the sport. Secondly, she has been an integral part of the executive committee, in her roles as both club secretary and treasurer of the team. As treasurer, she navigated the club through a challenging financial situation and ensured the club was profitable. She helped numerous club members gain their officiating qualification.
Finally, she has played an invaluable role in setting up the CUWLC development squad and making it is a success. She independently introduced thirty new students to the sport. This highlights the impact she has had on the club both on and off the pitch. Belinda's tireless efforts behind the scenes truly epitomize the essence of an unsung hero, warranting recognition and appreciation for her significant contributions.
2. Christo Smallwood, Olympic Gymnastics Club
When Christo joined the club this year, it was at very short notice due to our previous coach suddenly leaving. Since he joined he has done nothing but amazing work with the club. The club does not have a lot of money and Christo has spent a lot of his money paying for new equipment, handguards, grips, parallettes etc for training to enhance our club. Furthermore, he tried to get another coach to help coach us to maximise our experience and when we said about our financial restrictions for how much we could afford for coaching, without thinking Christo said he would work for free and the other coach could get paid as he just wants to enhance the club. Christo now coaches multiple sessions per week including sports centre sessions and sessions at the local Cambridge Gymnastics Academy in Arbury. This progressed beyond coaching and he even helped out at varsity including driving competitors and judging some of the events as without him, we would not have had enough judges to carry out the event with ease.
Every week he turns up prepared with an incredibly well organised plan of training for each apparatus (bearing in mind there are 8 different events for both men and women’s gymnastics) for every single skill level. In gymnastics there are people that have been a gymnast since 6 years old and people that have only just started at university, having never done a forward roll before. This level of organisation to cater to such a wide range of abilities on different apparatus is truly incredible and awe-inspiring. Additionally, over the holidays he compiled an entire skill library consisting of skills, progressions and videos for people to access and use as a guide for what they want to learn. The amount of effort he has put in every week, every day and in his own time, without desire of recognition or reward is truly the definition of an unsung hero. He has made such an incredible impact to the club and he really deserves recognition for this.
3. Johanna Schöenecker, Athletic Club
Since joining Cambridge University Athletic Club (CUAC) in 2016, Johanna Schöenecker has had an enormously positive impact on the club as a high-performing athlete, an excellent leader/administrator (President 2023-2024, Honorary Secretary 2022-2023) and the tireless work behind the scenes. Although this document is not long enough to detail all the positive contributions, we want to highlight just a few of the ways this club has benefitted from Johanna’s contributions.
Sporting Excellence:
Since competing in the Fresher’s Varsity match, where she was awarded best performance in the women’s match, Johanna has only continued to improve and excel within the club. At last year’s Varsity match, Johanna threw an Achilles (Oxbridge) record in the javelin of 45.37m. Whilst athletics may be an individual sport, Johanna is always ready to go above and beyond for the team and regularly helps fill gaps in other events such as hurdles and pole vault. Johanna is a true competitor and asset to the club.
Tireless Leader/Administrator:
CUAC has not only benefitted from her athletic contribution but also her commitment to the club as a committee member. In her outward-facing role as Club President, she is a friendly and welcoming face to both newcomers and returning members, encouraging athletes regardless of ability, and always around to provide advice and support. Throughout her presidency, she has routinely dedicated time before training to meet with fellow athletes so that they feel engaged with the club and that their voices are heard. She is regularly absorbing feedback from members to implement lasting change. Most notably widening accessibility to wheelchair racing, finding creative ways to engage alumni and secure sponsorships that will work toward stabilising the club’s finances, and organising events to strengthen athlete welfare, health, and nutrition.
Above and Beyond the Expectations:
However, much of her work goes somewhat unnoticed by the wider club due in large part to how brilliant she is in her role. Perhaps only in the absence of these efforts would the club be able to truly appreciate her huge contributions. To further assist with club activities, Johanna qualified as a level 1 official. With an official’s shortage within the sport as a whole, she is not only giving back to athletics but has been key to ensuring CUAC members can compete and gain experience in licensed events. Furthermore, Johanna has volunteered her time helping at local athletics camps and is working towards her level 2 athletics coaching qualification to share her knowledge and love of the sport with others. Johanna is a passionate advocate for the interests of the athletics club and its members, closely collaborating with the CUAC’s coaches and the sports service with regard to club activities and facility use, trying to provide athletes with every opportunity to succeed. Johanna has been a driving force behind attempts to secure future sustainability after several difficult years for the club - her hard work will be fundamental to CUAC’s continued development and sporting success.
4. Mercy Akinyele, Ladies Netball Club
Mercy has had a huge impact on CULNC yet stays extremely modest. She is an incredible netballer, having stepped up to play for teams in higher divisions with brilliant performances, however her contribution to CULNC goes far beyond her sporting talent.
Mercy never fails to show up to support any netball team; she is often behind the livestream camera cheering on Cambridge, making sure that as many netball games get streamed to social media as possible, sometimes staying at the USC all day! In doing so, Mercy has single-handedly raised the profile of the sport beyond just the Blues, ensuring that the other three CULNC teams get the recognition and support they deserve.
On top of this, Mercy has also previously held roles such as League Secretary where she had a similar impact, running a Men's cuppers competition in addition to the other two tournaments she had to organise. Mercy is focussing on her studies for her 4th year - without her in the club next year, her humble, understated yet extremely impactful contribution to the club will be missed. Mercy is an unsung hero and doesn't even realise how great she is!
5. Mia Urwin, Association Football Club
Mia Urwin poured her absolute heart and soul into reviving the hitherto practically non-existent Downing College Women and Non-Binary Football Club. She managed to persuade 30-odd people across the college, with little to no prior experience, to give the sport a go and created such a safe and non-judgemental place for people to do so. Mia had to build from the ground up, assembling a committee, designing and distributing club kits (including creating a team mascot and turning it into an enamel pin for everyone to get one!), liaising with other colleges to arrange matches - you name it, she did it.
Aside from the actual playing, Mia worked together with the committee to allow the Women and Non Binary team to have our first ever Annual College Dinner, an already long-standing tradition for our male counterparts. She also organised a hugely popular intra-college five-aside tournament in Easter term (which got cut short due to injury, but there have been movements on Facebook to resume it, which speaks to its popularity). Where other colleges needed to combine in order to field the team, Mia amassed more than enough players and shouldered most of the associated responsibility. Although our results have perhaps reflected our amateur status, I have never felt more part of a team and I owe it largely to the efforts of Mia Urwin, who is much too humble to pat herself on the back.
It is also worth noting that Mia was a second year Med student throughout this period, which is renowned for being the most difficult year of the degree, and makes her dedication all the more impressive. She showed up week in, week out, and she deserves her flowers.
6. Mia Ward, Cheerleading Society
Mia Ward has been a phenomenal captain to the Cambridge University Cheerleading Society’s level 2 team. She has revolutionised the team, through her groundbreaking training methods and her collaboration with world-class coaches to create a rigorous training schedule for all athletes. Mia captains the University’s second team, which has previously competed at level 1, which is a considerably less challenging category. Under her leadership, the University’s second team made its debut in the ‘level 2 non-tumbling category,’ significantly elevating the difficulty in stunting, the sport's primary element.
During training, Mia introduced 'hype runs,' where athletes performed individually in front of the group, ensuring collective support and identifying areas for improvement. She implemented more strength and conditioning within our sessions to ensure that each athlete was at their fittest and strongest. Namely, she implemented a ‘pyramid flashcard’ regime, whereby the athletes would build the routine step by step – she required flawless execution of the first step three times over before moving on to the second step. We would continue like this until we failed, at which point we would have to restart. With eight steps, the cheerleaders trained harder than ever. Beyond instilling a new level of discipline and focus in the team, her rigorous training created greater safety for the flyers in the group (the sportspeople who are thrown in the air as part of the choreography.) Furthermore, she organised a public showcase a week ahead of our first national competition, in order to ensure that the team was ready.
On February 18th, the team travelled to Manchester’s National Competition. The team achieved the highest score in Cambridge University history, placing 2nd nationally and defeating Oxford in the Varsity competition. Both within and outside of training, Mia has gone above to encourage bonding within the team: whether it be organising regular pizza nights at her house to get to know one another or drilling exercises intensely in training, she fostered a feeling of trust. Cheerleading is a very dangerous sport since some members of the team (the ‘flyers’) are launched into the air and can be dropped if the stunt is not correctly executed. It is solely thanks to trust that Mia incited within the team that the team performed so well.
At the British University Nationals on March 17th, 2024, the team broke records again with an 86.74% score, clinching the national championship for the first time in Cambridge University's history. In cheerleading, the scoring system rarely allows high scores (most teams score below 70%) and thus is comparable to university grading, so this performance was a starred first! Mia has set a precedent for future sportspeople and captains, leading by example by demonstrating the true strength and determination required to excel on a national stage.
Mia has captained with joy, kindness, and focus and fostered an incredibly supportive environment on the team, and as a result, the whole team has grown as athletes considerably this season - in particular, about a third of the team this year were new to cheer, and despite this, were able to hit elite skills at nationals! She is both an incredible athlete and a fantastic leader, and incredibly deserving of this award.
