RMIT have won two 2019 UniSport Australia Awards, taking out the Most Outstanding Social Media Campaign and Most Outstanding Contribution by a Student Volunteer.
The award ceremony was held virtually last Friday, with eleven award categories.
Image: UniSport Australia
2019 Redbacks Captain and five-time RMIT netball team manager, Tyson Lingham, took home the Most Outstanding Contribution by a Student Volunteer award for RMIT.
Lingham said the award was a “real surprise”.
“I was really shocked when I got the message saying I had won the award. Not knowing the university had nominated me made it even more special as it was out of the blue. I think it really tops off the amazing year I had with the Redbacks. We achieved all of our goals and had such a successful and fun year. Being recognised at a national level makes me quite proud that hard work does get noticed and it was just plain exciting to win,” he said.
RMIT’s Representative Sport Officer, Eliza Goulding, said Lingham “stood out” amongst the student leaders at RMIT.
“When we look at students who have contributed a significant amount he stood out. Last year at the RMIT Sport Awards, he won the Outstanding Nationals Team Leader award and also a Five Year Contribution to Sport award. There's lots of students that are involved in sport over five years, but not many that are actually holding a leadership position across those five years. It's really nice to be able to acknowledge someone like that who's given so much to RMIT Sport over his time at uni,” Goulding said.
RMIT’s mixed netball team. Tyson Lingham is team manager (back row, third from left, GS). (Photo: RMIT Sport)
Lingham said the “lifelong friendships” he’s made through university sport are the “single most important outcome”.
“It makes not only uni so much easier, but betters you as a person. Uni sports and the Redbacks have changed my life for the better and that's because of all the amazing people I have met along the way,” he said.
Image: UniSport Australia
RMIT also took out the Most Outstanding Social Media Campaign for the second year in a row.
The criteria for the award was expanded in 2019 to include social media campaigns from any sport event.
RMIT won for their Nationals coverage, which was led by Sport Communications Advisor Ryan Mobilia.
In a social media post, Mobilia described the win as a “great team effort” and said he felt “lucky to have been there to help tell the story online”.
“No fancy awards night and trophy like last year, but just as satisfying,” he added.
Mobilia said the RMIT students were the “stars of the campaign”, a sentiment Goulding strongly agreed with.
“The Redbacks culture is so strong. It comes down to the students that are part of that Redbacks team that create that sort of success. It's the students that are the face of the team and the students that are the ones that are really selling the story and the experience, and I think that's why it is so special, and that's why we do get such good engagement through those channels,” Goulding said.
Through Mobilia working to spread RMIT Sport’s social media content across different platforms and RMIT University’s main accounts, the award winning campaign had over 50,000 engagements and over 170,000 views.
These two awards add onto RMIT taking out back-to-back Spirit Awards and multiple gold medals at the 2019 UniSport Nationals.
Redbacks Captains Beck Mclnerney (left) and Tyson Lingham (right), and RMIT’s Representative Sport Officer Eliza Goulding (middle) with the 2019 Spirit Award. (Photo: RMIT Sport)
Unfortunately, no Nationals event will be held in 2020 due to COVID-19 so the Redbacks won’t have the opportunity to defend their titles until at least 2021.
Goulding said they were “devastated” the event had to be cancelled but it makes them excited for next year.
“Obviously we understand the situation and we understand that the call had to be made to postpone Nationals in Perth this year, but it is a real shame. We're devastated for those students particularly [who are in their final year of studies at RMIT]. But it does make us excited for next year. We know that it's going to be challenging building that momentum again, but because we've got such a strong group of students that will lead us, we're really hopeful that it'll be bigger and better than it's ever been in 2021,” she said.
She added that RMIT was using the hiatus as an opportunity to explore options for more intervarsity competition against other universities, possibly in the second half of this year.
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