These five young sport writers have been around for some years now and have gained some considerable experience in their craft. Their respective sport articles have an appreciable audience and are read with relish (as it were).
Annemarie de Villiers
Writes on women's sport and anything else that comes to mind. Annemarie was awarded the 2013 Basil Sellers Young Writer Sport Award. Annemarie is a sports science student in Melbourne, having been born in South Africa but schooling in New Zealand as her family migrated.
Wesley Tronson
Writes on EPL (English Premier League) having seven years in Manchester in banking and playing soccer. He was a member of the 2008 Manchester Juniors that was the only UK team to have won any European tournament that year. Returning to Australia in 2010 he is a NAB branch manager on the Gold Coast.
Adam Schoenmaker
Writes on Cricket, NRL, AFL, Super Rugby and served as a school chaplain in Brisbane for many years and is now an associate pastor. When he initiated his sport articles one of the secondary students found that particular article about the NRL on Google and it spread like wild fire and the school chaplain became an instant celebrity. Adam is stepping down at the end of 2013 and we're looking for another sport young writer.
Josh Hinds
Josh Hinds comes from a family of sport fanatics where the three boys had sporting contests after school. Josh is widely read on sports and covers international sports. He serves as a school chaplain on the Gold Coast while he and his mother-in-law run their own IT company – Josh set up the PSI website for the young writers. Josh and Laura have two little ones.
Brad Mills
Brad Mills is from Auckland where he works in Christian Media (radio) and writes on New Zealand sport as he does in his work place situation. Brad is very experienced in covering sport. He visited Cambodia last year with a film crew for Christian Media where they recorded and produced feature mission videos.
The Sport Panellists
That covers the Sport young writers, now for their new Panellist team who will assess their articles from the end of January through to mid August for the 2014 Basil Sellers Young Writers Sport Award.
Reverend Peter Nelson - the Australian Institute of Sport and Olympic chaplain for 26 years in Canberra and represented Tasmania in Cricket.
Simon Farrer - is a sports enthusiast from Melbourne and is in a senior position with a Government body. Simon and Mary-Jane have a growing family.
Ruth Sellers – is in business living in Hong Kong and married to Darrell Sellers, son of Basil Sellers. In Ruth's own words: "As I am a sports "passionista", it will be very enjoyable to read and rate these sports articles from the young writers - and will do my best to give a fair and accurate rating."
Tim Wilson – was a young writer and served with YWAM for nine years before his wife Genevieve (a young writer herself) and family relocated to Canada where Tim now works in the corporate world. Tim's time with YWAM saw him leading a team around the world where sports ministry played an incredibly important part of their evangelism. They have three little ones.
Sylvia Kitzelman – is a Post Graduate Student in Melbourne and married to young writer Ben Kitzelman. Sylvia is from Ghana bringing an African perspective to sport and it was in Ghana where Ben and Sylvia met, when Ben was on Mission.
David Burr – is another Melbournian passionate about Sports. David is a barrister and his wife May who is also a lawyer are condominium and town house developers. They have 4 adult children.
Tony Dunkerley – a former Australian Joeys Assistant Coach, former Victorian Under 21 / Junior teams Coach, former President Victorian Football and Soccer Commissioner for Junior Football. Tony has been on many Country Town Tour outreaches with Well-Being Australia. He was a plenary speaker at the 2013 Young Writers Conference in Melbourne. Tony is a very enthusiastic grand father known as "Par".
The PSI young writer program looks forward to a very big 2014 especially for the sport writer Panellist team.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at
www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
