Administrator of the Year
Chris Williams, Whangarei Rowing Club
Chris Williams has been a dedicated member of the Whangarei Rowing Club since 2011, beginning as
a Masters rower and evolving into a highly respected coach and President. His unwavering
commitment to the club and its athletes is evident in the countless hours he devotes each week to
coaching, mentoring, and leading.
Chris trains young rowers for a minimum of 10 hours per week, while also managing the responsibilities of club President. He attends around 10 regattas each season—often at Karapiro or Twizel—requiring significant preparation, travel, and time away from work and family. He has also introduced weekend learn-to-row sessions and supported the development of new assistant coaches.
His coaching achievements are exceptional, including multiple gold medals at the 2025 North Island
Secondary School Championships and Maadi Cup, particularly in girls U15 and U16 events. These
results reflect not only technical excellence but also the strong, values-based culture Chris has
fostered within the club.
Chris is known for his inclusive approach, ensuring that financial or logistical barriers never prevent
young people from participating in rowing. He instills resilience, teamwork, and self-belief in every
athlete, creating a positive environment where young people thrive and form lifelong bonds.
Despite his remarkable impact, Chris remains humble and never seeks recognition—making it all the
more important to honour him as one of our community’s most dedicated people.
Coach of the Year
Andy Hay / Jordan Stanley / Jo Shotter, Westlake Boys High School
Andy and Jordan coached the U 17/18 squad at Westlake Boys high school this season. They helped
these boys achieve great results across both minor and major regattas.
The U17 4+ won the NISS shield and were 4th at Maadi Cup.
The U18s won all their fours and eight races all season, taking home Golds in the pair, four and eighty at NISS and at Maadi Cup.
Andy is a face most people will know. He is the “RowingHub” editor for all those fantastic stories
about grassroots rowing right through to how the elite crews are doing at Olympics and Worlds. He
loves bring rowing to the table for everyone to see.
Jordan is on the ARA, aiming to make the Auckland Region a great place to row as a novice right
through to elites. He has now been a NZ Junior selector for 2 years. These two men together love
rowing and see it as a much bigger goal than themselves.
At Maadi cup this year, Andy Hay won the U18 coach of the year Boys coach trophy and Jordan
Stanley won the Junior coach of the year Cup. They have been part of the 8 man coaching team at
Westlake and have helped make it one hell of a fun team to be a part of and a lot of fun!! They are
both giving back on so many levels and hence this nomination to recognise them for their efforts.
It must also be mentioned that Jo Shotter, Director of Rowing for Westlake Boys, was instrumental in
supporting Andy, Jordan and the Senior Boys at Westlake and greatly influenced their performances
which saw them win the iconic Maadi Cup and the “sweep grand slam” that only few schools
have ever achieved in the history of the Maadi Regatta. The ARA would like to also recognise Jo
Shotter as a recipient of this award.
Rower of the Year
Ryan Gass, Auckland Rowing Club
A dynamic athlete, Ryan has been a consistent leader and high performing athlete for the Auckland
Rowing Club and for the Auckland region over the last few years. Ryan has been a strong leader for
the Auckland Rowing Club and has represented both the Auckland region and New Zealand for many
years, most recently being involved in the 2024 Auckland Interprovincial Team and the 2024 New
Zealand Under-23 Team.
This past summer saw Ryan have another dominant rowing season, where he was in the front of the pack for the majority of his races all season and saw him multiple bronze and gold medals at the 2025 New Zealand Rowing Championships.
Ryan is well-deserving of this award and we wish him all the best with his aspirations of making the
New Zealand Elite Team.