The Wellington Phoenix have triumphed in four categories at the \u0100ti Awa Wellington Regional Sports Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Held on Thursday night, the awards have been running for over 40 years and celebrate the contribution that sport makes to the wider Wellington region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first award for the Phoenix was club of the year, which is based on a mixture of both sporting excellence and community engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was reward for a year where both men\u2019s and women\u2019s sides broke points and attendance records, while community initiatives like Football for All continued to make tangible and positive differences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The men\u2019s team received an additional acknowledgement with the team of the year award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This came after they smashed expectations last season, finishing second and coming agonisingly close to making their first ever grand final appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were two individual awards for Phoenix representatives as well, as Giancarlo Italiano and Lukas Kelly-Heald were recognised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italiano was the victor in the coach of the year category, where a stunning first season as an A-League head coach saw him also win the league\u2019s manager of the year award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, Kelly-Heald won the rangatahi sportsperson of the year, for the most outstanding athlete aged 20 or under. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His debut professional season showcased an incredible rise from a reserve team standout to an internationally capped first team regular. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Nix goalkeeper Alex Paulsen was also a finalist in the sportsperson of the year category, which was won by cricketer Rachin Ravindra.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wellington Phoenix winners at the \u0100ti Awa Wellington Regional Sports Awards<\/strong>
NW Group club of the year – Wellington Phoenix
Hiremaster team of the year – Wellington Phoenix men\u2019s first team
Shoe Clinic coach of the year – Giancarlo Italiano
IT Works rangatahi sportsperson of the year – Lukas Kelly-Heald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":323270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,330,356,343,355],"tags":[],"competition":[],"acf":{"match_card_embed_league":null,"match_card_embed_club":null,"match_card_embed_match":false,"match_card_embed_disable":false,"auto_publish_updates":true,"reference_article":null,"article_featured_video":"","article_featured_video_tagline":"","article_byline":"","article_media_type":"news","article_video":"","gallery":"","shared_ffa_source":"keepup","shared_hide_in_app":false,"article_player":"","article_team":"","article_competition":"","article_match":"","credit":"","related_articles":"","push_to_social":false,"priority":1,"sport":false,"language":"en","private_content":false,"access_level":"","article_id":"","app_featured_image":null,"article_content_group":"news"},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/news\/phoenix-win-four-wellington-sports-awards\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Phoenix win four Wellington Sports Awards","url":"http:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/news\/phoenix-win-four-wellington-sports-awards\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/news\/phoenix-win-four-wellington-sports-awards\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/10\/Ati-Awa-Toa-Wellington-Regional-Sports-Awards-Highlights-4-3.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/10\/Ati-Awa-Toa-Wellington-Regional-Sports-Awards-Highlights-4-3.jpg"},"articleSection":"Breaking News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"roshi"}],"creator":["roshi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wellington Phoenix","logo":"https:\/\/wellingtonphoenix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2022\/04\/cropped-Wellington_Phoenix_FC_logo-2.png"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-10-24T08:00:00Z","datePublished":"2024-10-24T08:00:00Z","dateModified":"2024-10-25T02:39:51Z"},"rendered":"