Blues Awards 2022
The Annual Blues Awards took place at the Assembly Rooms on Wednesday 4 May 2022. It was a beautiful evening celebrating our amazing supporting talent, huge congratulations to all our nominees and winners.
Blues Award Booklet
2022 Blues Awards Winners
University of Bath Sports Personality of the Year: This award recognises a student who has contributed significantly to student sport during their time at University, and encapsulates the spirit of University sport. ‘Positive contribution’ may take many forms, including performance, service, and participation.
Charlotte Greenlees (football).
Charlotte Greenlees is the 2021/22 Chair of the Association Football and Futsal Club. She is a BSc Social Sciences undergraduate student in the final year of her degree, looking to work in international development upon completion of her degree.
She began playing football aged 8 when she was introduced to the sport by her dad, and since then she has played for multiple teams, including Eastbourne Town WFC and Lewes LFC. She is a ball playing centre-back and has been a leader in every team she has played in. She also played football for Newham College, playing a key role in their football program.
After sustaining a knee injury before coming to the University of Bath, she was unable to play until the Christmas of her first semester of university. She was initially placed in the development squad, before immediately being moved up to the 2s, who achieved second place in the league that year. By the start of her second year, she had been named captain of the 1s, leading her team to a respectable 3rd place finish in the Southern division of the country's topflight. She was also one of the club’s Social Secretaries, organising all non-footballing aspects of UOBWFC’s calendar.
For her placement year, she was involved in teaching Malaysian children English and worked alongside a group of Canadian researchers on a study involving indigenous peoples.
Now in her final year, she successfully runs both the men’s and women’s side of the Association Football and Futsal Club in her position as Chair. She gives up a significant portion of her free time in order to run the club, coordinating with the SU officers, who have nothing but praise for her, and every member of the club. She oversees all other committee members, ensuring they meet the demands of their roles and more. She facilitates the club’s smooth running on a day-to-day basis, all alongside the constant pressures of her degree.
Runners-up: Tom Dean (swimming), Athénaïs Mangin (sailing), Arnaud Masset (squash).
Club of the Year: This award recognises the success and substantial achievements clubs can attain when they function effectively as a whole
University of Bath Sailing.
Runner-up: Bath Jets Cheerleading Club.
Gethin John Bevan Club Member of the Year:This award acknowledges that SU Sports clubs would not function without a substantial input from student volunteers
Monique Phillibert (cheerleading).
Monique been an active member of Cheerleading Club since 2018. She was completely new to the sport when she joined Bath Jets Cheerleading. In her 2nd year she gained her level 2 coaching qualification, stepping into coach recreational sessions where needed. In her 3rd year she took on the administrative role of Club Secretary, assisting the Chair with the overall running of the Club, alongside studying for her integrated master’s degree in chemical engineering.
On her placement in her 4th year, she joined an all-star team in London, before returning to the club as Chair in her final year.
Coming into the role of Chair was a challenge, with most of the club having little knowledge of how the club operated pre-Covid-19 and key committee positions not filled. However, Monique saw this as a chance to start a fresh and to make positive changes to the way the club operates. Spearheading the strategy to increase club membership this year, Monique introduced a new refreshers pom squad and integrated both stunting and dance for the Bath Jets Performance in the Freshers Arena on Launch Night. As a result, club membership has increased by over 12%, compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.
She was successful in her campaign to secure budget for a regular external coach both for stunting and tumbling, which saw the Bath Jets cheer squads place 1st at their first competition in December. To save on budget this year, Monique spent weeks learning and using specialist software to create the music tracks for the competition and varsity routines. She also organised an end of season Club dinner and a Christmas raffle, which raised £200 for the club.
She organised for the volunteer student coaches to acquire their level 2 cheerleading coaching qualifications and assumed a strong mentorship role, providing guidance and advice to the younger members on committee. Since the start of her final year, Monique has dedicated around 8 hours a week of her time towards the club. Split between training, coaching, helping other club or committee members and completing administrative tasks.
Putting a high value on member experience within the club, Monique conducted an end of semester Christmas survey to members which received over 80 responses. She has used the feedback to make improvements to the club for semester 2, including more joint socials, creating a brand-new performance squad for sports fixtures and varsity and a non-alcoholic social calendar.
She has shown a passion for her sport and for the development of Bath Jets Cheerleading Club and is excited to see how much the club progresses after she graduates from Bath in summer 2022.
BUCS Team of the Year: This award is only open to the 1st team of any sport and will be presented purely on the level of performance and achievement during the season
Lacrosse men’s 1sts.
Runners-up:Football women’s 1sts.
The David Vandelinde Award: Recognises sporting accomplishment, leadership and academic success.
Maria Valderrabano (basketball).
Maria has always greatly enjoyed sports and has taken part in multiple sports recreationally throughout her life, starting from tennis and dance, to swimming, golf and skiing, and later on started competing in sports. She joined her first competitive team at the age of 12, as a part of the Under 13 women’s team at the Colomiers Basketball Club in France. She continued to develop in basketball as her main competitive sport, playing in the Inter-Regional league as an Under 17, and then at an Under 20 Pre-National League until the end of secondary school. Throughout all this time, she developed a love for competition, challenges and personal growth that is achieved through perseverance and effort and applied all of this not only to sport but also in school as she rigorously pursued to improve in her academic studies, achieving 40 points in the International Baccalaureate and competing in international maths competitions. It was also during this time that Maria developed a passion for volunteering, becoming a UNICEF Young Ambassador and striving to raise awareness in her local community.
After arriving at the University of Bath to study Civil and Architectural Engineering, Maria decided to continue playing basketball competitively, trialling and making it into the Women’s 1 Basketball team, that competed in BUCS Western 1A. In addition to this, she decided to try new sports, joining the Volleyball Club as a recreational member, Wheelchair Basketball and Sitting Volleyball. She competed in Varsity in 2019 as a first year student in both Basketball and Wheelchair Basketball at the end of the year. Having enjoyed participating and competing in these sports in her first year of studies, she decided to take on volunteer roles within sport in her second and fourth years to enable other students to enjoy sport during their university experience, becoming Inclusion Officer on the Sport Executive Committee in her second year, and both Sport Exec Treasurer and Volunteer Recognition Officer in her fourth year. Alongside these leadership positions, she continued to compete in sport, winning the Basketball Western 2 Conference Cup in her second year, and currently 1st in the Volleyball Bristol League Women Division 1. During her time at the University of Bath, Maria has consistently achieved a First yearly average in her studies for her degree, and pursued further academic development outside of the university, winning the Undergraduate Prize of the IStructE Young Structural Engineering International Design Competition 2020. All of these volunteering roles, sporting competitions and academic efforts have formed a fundamental part of Maria’s personal development, ingraining core values of striving for excellence, integrity and respect.
Volunteer Coach of the Year: This award recognises the significant impact to sport made through coaching by student volunteers. It recognises that such volunteers give a substantial amount of time to improve the coaching provisions within their club
Olivia Rippon (cheerleading).
During Olivia’s final year of undergraduate study, she has independently coached 5 cheerleading dance teams, incorporating approximately 80 students. This involved choreographing their routines, editing the music, holding taster sessions and auditions, and organising/attending all training sessions.
Olivia is extremely dedicated to her role as dance coach, consistently receiving positive feedback from the other students that she coaches. Her sessions are a place that students can come and enjoy themselves, taking time away from the stress of university life and to show them there will always be support for them from cheer. Olivia’s efforts include making sure that each individual student that she coaches has all the resources they need to progress in their abilities as much as possible.
Olivia has consistently tried to make sure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to be included in the dance teams. Furthermore, as far as records show for the first time in Bath Jets history, she created two non-audition large pom teams that attended a competition. The non-audition large pom teams are open to all abilities and are a way that anyone is able to try cheer dance without any prior experience. Normally cheer have one large pom team, and the sign-ups are usually limited to cheer freshers, however, she recognised that due to COVID-19, the now 2nd years had not been given this equal opportunity. As a result, she created a fresher and refresher large pom team which involved 60 students.
Finally, regarding her achievements as dance coach here at the university, at Future Cheer Winter Wonderland, four of her teams won first place in their division and her other team won second place.
Full Blue: Full Blues are awarded to students who have competed for a University 1st team for two years along with two years’ representation at international level.
Arnaud Masset (squash).
Since arriving at the University of Bath in 2017, Arnaud has been ever present in the Men's first squash team. During his time at University, he has represented the club in the BUCS league and cup competitions, the local Avon league and at the BUCS Individual Championships. Whilst studying at Bath, he has also represented his native country of Luxembourg at both the 2018 and 2019 European Squash Team Championships.
Since 2021, Arnaud has held the role of Men's first team captain. During his time in this role, he guided the Men's first team to a first place finish in the BUCS Western Division 1. This qualified the team for a playoff competition which would determine promotion to the top division of Men's University squash in the UK. Unfortunately, promotion wasn't meant to be as the team battled and lost to a Nottingham team littered with professional players. However, this was by far the closest that the Men's team has come to reaching the top division in recent memory.
Since becoming a senior figure at the club, Arnaud has been instrumental in the development of squash at Bath. He has tirelessly worked with others at the club to ensure the development of both the team and recreational offer. Through this work and his role as Men's first team captain, the University of Bath Squash Club this year has achieved a first place finish for Men's Squash, and highs of 7th for Women's Squash and 3rd overall in the BUCS ranking table, despite not having a Premier Division side.
Half Blue: Are awarded to students with junior international representation or podium finishes in BUCS whilst competing for a University first team
Mia Blazey, Brooklyn Cheal-Ferris, Kate Walsh (association football and Futsal); Molly Chapman (badminton); Ramzi Nasr, William Rawlins, Oliver Walker (lacrosse); Kamal Deris (Taekwondo); Freya Davies, Louis Newman (tennis).
Honorary Blue: Awarded to any person who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of University Sport
Imy Bantick (rowing)
Crew Bath’s Imy Bantick made national headlines when she won gold at the 2021 World Rowing Indoor Championships – all without leaving her student digs.
Imy, who studies Sport & Exercise Science, completed 2km on her home rowing machine in 7mins 22.3secs to claim victory in the U23 Lightweight Women’s race ahead of competitors from Hong Kong, Tunisia, France, Canada and the United States.
Each competitor’s rowing machine was connected to computers and the race streamed online to simulate side-by-side racing, with Imy – who qualified for the Worlds by winning the British Championships – setting her erg up in the kitchen.
Ben Proud (swimming)
Ben Proud produced a stunning performance to win 50m freestyle gold at the FINA World Short-Course Championships in Abu Dhabi in December 2021.
The double Olympian, who joined Mark Skimming’s University of Bath training group earlier in the year, was fastest out of the blocks in the final and touched the wall first in 20.45secs to add gold to the world butterfly and European freestyle titles he had previously won in a long-course pool.
Ben also twice smashed the British 50m freestyle in November to help Energy Standard win the 2021 International Swimming League title.
Special Honorary Blue: We also recognise achievements of students, and other athletes who trained at the University, in the 2020 Olympic & Paralympic Games and the 2022 winter Olympics.
Tom Gale, Levern Spencer (athletics); Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz, Megan Fletcher (judo); Joanna Muir (modern pentathlon); Freya Anderson, Kieran Bird, Tom Dean, James Guy, Calum Jarvis, Jacob Peters, Matt Richards, Brodie Williams (swimming); Michael Taylor (para-triathlon); Brogan Crowley, Matt Weston, Marcus Wyatt (skeleton); Dimitri Coutya, Oliver Lam-Watson (wheelchair fencing).
Colour: Are awarded to students who have consistently represented the University over a two or three year period in BUCS sports
Gregory Kemp (American Football); Charlotte Greenlees, Matthew Talbot (association football and Futsal); Emma Hooper, Timothy Scott (badminton); Josh Davis, Ffion Platt (basketball); Charlotte Williams (cycling); Keir Ansell, Charlotte Crombie, Emma Ladd Gibbon, Katie Laffey, Chloe Lewis, Daniel Verity (hockey); Phoebe James, Annabelle Stoney (lacrosse); Maya Meredith, Selina Radcliffe, Caitlin Rowley (netball); Ed Ashcroft, Rory Mead (rugby); Emma Bennett, William Hopes (sailing); Bruno Kempster (swimming); Addi Duhan (table tennis); Oscar Glenister, Kate Horsburgh, Oliver Matthews (tennis); Olivia Carr, Constance Lynch (Ultimate Frisbee); Jaime Elosua Feliciano (volleyball); Isaac Allen, Jade Bikard, Rebecca Milne, Danielle Cooper, Natalie Smith (water polo).
Honorary Colour: Are awarded to students who have made a valuable contribution to the administration and development of a sport or recreation in the University or British Universities, either within a club or SU Sport as a whole
Matthew Houghton, Charlotte Greenlees (association football and Futsal); Monique Phillibert (cheerleading); George Creasey (cycling); Dan West, George Malone (rugby); Athénaïs Mangin (sailing); Addi Duhan (table tennis).
Ribbon: Are awarded to students who have consistently represented the University over two or a three year period in non BUCS sports
Josh Henderson, Isabel Hurst, Eileen Russell (touch rugby).
