Donna wins BT coach of the year prize

INSPIRATIONAL coach Donna Hankinson, who helped create the award-winning North East Manchester Hawks Handball Club, has been won BT’s Coaching for Life Coach of the Year 2012 competition.

Donna was chosen from over 120 entries for her dedication to promoting the Olympic sport.

She has recently added a string of successes to her name, including coaching the Hawks boys under-18s and girls under-18s teams to national league and cup doubles.

Donna also led Great Britain’s under-20 women’s team to their first World Championships in Poland earlier this year and was a finalist in the Coach of the Year category at the One Future Oldham Sports Awards last month.

Donna said: “I’m really honoured. This prize is all down to the great people I work with and the amazing youngsters who make coaching worthwhile. We have some international-level players in the Hawks squad, and having the chance to talk to a former Olympic athlete has inspired them to keep training hard to achieve their dreams.”

Donna, a sales manager at Turner Bianca in Oldham, helped form the Hawks in 2010 following a pilot project in schools across Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside.


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