Held on Sunday at the MCG, Preston was honoured for driving multiple initiatives at his school, getting students active and involved in cricket.
‘‘It was awesome, so good to get down there, they had a function in the innings break of the BBL games in one of the rooms,’’ Preston, 25, said.
‘‘It was a bit bigger than I expected, I probably didn’t realise how many nominations there were for it, so to win was definitely a bit of a shock.’’
The programs driven by Preston included the Mascot Challenge, a Prep to Year 2 program developing fundamental movement skills and physical literacy, as well as running a Twenty20 Blast Cup for years 3 to 6.
‘‘We had 200 kids playing over on the ovals. It came from the boys in the Northern Rivers Cricket office, we ran that day and that went really well,’’ he said.
‘‘And we’ve had boys’ and girls’ teams over the last couple of years make it through to regional finals.’’
Preston, who has also been nominated for Cricket Victoria’s A Sport For All awards, said seeing the school’s girls’ side make serious strides had been just one part of a seriously rewarding job.
‘‘Once I’ve come here, I love my cricket myself, I’ve been trying to get that to rub off on the kids,’’ he said.
‘‘I just want to continue what I’ve been doing, girls cricket is growing as well, it’s great our girls were able to progress through to the regional finals.
‘‘We want to continue to provide those opportunities to our kids. Who knows, maybe we can get some kids through to the state sides.’’
Preston thanked St Mary’s for its support, as well as the staff at Northern Rivers Cricket for his nomination.
