Trangie’s Jessica Skinner has received the Country Rugby League (CRL) Women in League Achievement award at the CRL Community Awards dinner on Saturday night.
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Skinner received the award for her numerous services to the Western Region. In an amazing show of dedication to Women’s Rugby League, she is currently the Coach of the Western Rams women’s tackle and ladies league tag representative sides.
She also coaches the Far West Academy league tag team and was a pioneer in implementing the inaugural league tag academy program, developing female youth across remote and rural communities in the Barwon Darling, Outback and Castlereagh Leagues.
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Through Skinner’s hard work, six players from the Western region gained selection in the NSW Southern Country side for the opportunity to push for selection for the NSW Country side.
“She’s done a terrific job and its certainly well deserved to receive this acknowledgement,” CRL Western Regional Area Manager Peter Clarke said.
“We’re very fortunate to have her as a prominent figure in our game, and I’m sure she’s got a lot more to offer Western and country rugby league as a whole.”
Skinner said that her passion for the game began as a child growing up on the sideline watching her brothers play. However four years ago she was given the opportunity to coach a local team in league tag, driving her passion in supporting women in rugby league that has grown with more girls playing rugby league.
“It started off as a passion and at a local level and it just got bigger and bigger from there,” Skinner said.
“For me I think footy provides more than just the sport, it provides a network of support, provides a family, when the chips are down in small country towns something to do, it gets a lot of kids off the streets and for me it gives a lot of women the opportunity to do something other than just being at home with the kids, playing a motherly role.”
“It’s giving them something for themselves to be involved with on the field rather than canteen duties and things like that we would normally do within the sport.”
Skinner said she is “extremely humbled” to have received the award, which she said wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a number of people. “The award says my name on it but definitely belongs to a lot of volunteers in our area,” Skinner said.
“I’m not the only person who has gone on this journey … people like the Far West Academy of Sport provide a lot of opportunities for girls to participate in rugby league, Castlereagh and Barwon Darling are supporting the initiatives and I’ve got Western Rams and Group 11 with Peter Clarke who support the game and provide all the opportunities for me to keep influencing in small communities.”
“So without their support and assistance I wouldn't be able to do my job,” she said.