News

6th June, 2014 

It was announced yesterday by the Cabinet Office that Rebecca Daniels, Hockey Wales U18 Girls Programme Manager, was awarded the Prime Ministers daily ‘Point of Light’ award. Rebecca is only the second Welsh person to receive this award.

The daily ‘Points of Light’ award recognises outstanding individual volunteers - people who are making a change in their community. Rebecca wins the award for giving up her spare time to champion hockey at a local, national and international level; helping hundreds of Welsh young people get involved in the sport over the years.

Rebecca is a PE teacher and Head of Year 7 at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff, where she encourages many pupils to take up playing hockey for the first time. In her spare time, Rebecca is the Whitchurch Saints 2XI team Captain and head coach of their U18 and U15 girls squads, having a fantastic season this year with her 2XI team playing in the National Cup Finals. Rebecca is also the Programme Manager for the Hockey Wales U18 Girls international squad and has been for a number of years, meaning that she has a hugely important role in the development of our young international players too.

On top of all of this, Rebecca is also a trustee of the Friends of Welsh Hockey Charity, set up to support field hockey activities within Wales. In 2007 Rebecca was awarded an FIH Youth Leadership Certificate for an outstanding contribution to Hockey in her country. Rebecca was nominated for the certificate through her work with the Hockey Wales Youth Activator programme, and as a result she was able to travel to Canada to the World Hockey Youth Promoter’s Festival to share ideas with other young leaders from all over the world. Following this Rebecca was appointed as the Secretary of the FIH Youth Panel, and is still active today supporting the European Hockey Federation Youth Panel. Because of all of this activity it was no surprise that Rebecca was a Torch Bearer for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which she followed up on as a volunteer at the Games as part of the Athlete Services team for Hockey. This year Rebecca will again be a part of the Athlete Services team for Hockey at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Hockey and Hockey Wales and Whitchurch Saints are very lucky to have Rebecca!