What a night it was last night in London, as Basketball England (BE) won the 2023 Bishop Lloyd Jackson ‘Sport Organisation of the Year Award’.
The news was announced on the 21 October at the Sporting Equals Awards evening, hosted at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London attended by Basketball England national and regional personnel, including GB Maxis Ruth Eytle and Sadie Mason MBE, herself a BE board member championing inclusion particularly for older players.
The award recognises a sports organisation that has made excellent progress on the agenda for ethnically diverse people and communities and is an example to follow.
Popular basketball coach and player, Ruth Eytle, was one of the runners-up in the ‘Coach of the Year’ category, alongside football manager Darren Moore, with the award going to athletics coach Leon Baptiste.
Eytle said:
“I wanted to be that role model for other black female coaches, in fact all female coaches because there’s not enough of us.
“Everyone always remembers their first coach. You always remember that coach that taught you to love the game. And I’ve always enjoyed doing that.”
Her placing in the category’s final three was in recognition of her work with England’s U14 girls this summer, honing GB’s future talent. And for her Activities 4 U programme, her popular HoopsB4Work – a weekly adults recreational basketball programme in Central and South London – and her work with London All Stars women’s team.
GB Maxis’ programme director, Sadie Mason said,
” We are very proud of Ruth’s achievements and it is testament to her development work in London that she has been recognised nationally. Congrats Ruth! We are proud to have you as part of the GB Maxibasketball family!”
You can read the full article on basketballengland.co.uk.
