Thomas Webster - Finalist Sport NSW Community Sport Awards

13 June 2021

Thomas Webster - Finalist Sport NSW Community Sport Awards

This Thursday night the Sport NSW Community Awards will be held at Bankwest Stadium. Athletics NSW will be represented by Valmai Loomes who will receive a Distinguished Long Service Award, while Thomas Webster and Kurt Fryer are finalists in the Young Official and Young Coach of the Year categories.

For Thomas Webster it is a very special moment for his mother Yvonne, an Athletics NSW official.

“I am so excited for Thomas and am super proud of him,” said Yvonne.

Thomas has competed as a multi class athlete since the age of 6 years old, including at National Level. Over the last 12 months he decided that he would now prefer to officiate and has loved helping on the computer. He was given the opportunity and has not looked back. Despite his autism and because of his autism he ensures that everything is correctly input and has also learnt what to look for in the written results and knows when something is not correct. He has been able to pick up the computer system very quickly, including the more complicated parts such as doing field series in Meet Manager.

Based in Newcastle, Thomas was a regular official in 2020/21. He officiated at the MIngara Interclub, Country Championships, NSW Juniors, LANSW State Qualifier and LANSW State Championships. Locally assisted at the Summer Series at the Fearnley Dawes track. Pre-COVID, in 2019, he also assisted with Zone and Regional championships.

He has been an inspiration to other officials who have highly commended him on the work he has done.

Best wishes Thomas and Drew Fryer on Thursday night.

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Yvonne Webster is one of NSW valued officials. We recently asked her about her journey in athletics.

When Did you Start Officiating?

“I started doing Meet Management at Zone at Little Athletics when my daughter was seven. She is now 23. This would have been 2005.”

Where did you start Officiating?

“At Zone LANSW in Meet Management.”

What Opportunities has Officiating provided you with?

“Due to my friendships through LANSW

“When I was in Sydney to watch Thomas compete at NSW Juniors seven years ago a friend called me from the crowd to see if I would input results as the person who was supposed to had not turned up and I have not looked back since having officiated for ANSW at Championship and club levels. I have also officiated at Nationals in 2019. I have also been heavily involved in the calculation of the multi class athletes results which I really enjoy.”

Tell us about your favourite Officiating Experience on the Track/Field....

“This would definitely be Nationals in 2019. I ended up being the only official who turned up to do Meet Management and did this on my own for the entire week. As daunting as it was I thoroughly enjoyed all the work and meeting new people and learning the whole time from their experience. At the end of the week the praise that I got was a major boost to my confidence.”

Tell us about your favourite Officiating Experience off the Track....

“I also officiate for netball and am on the Exec committee at our local netball association. I am a C Badged National umpire and enjoy this immensely.”

Why should others volunteer as an Official?

“Not only do you get to make wonderful friendships and learn lots it is the satisfaction of being able to help in the running of large events that make me happy. I also feel that if my children are involved in the sport that I should be giving something back to the sport and helping. Even though my children are no longer competing I will continue to officiate for as long as possible.”

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Thomas Webster officiating at Mingara