BY DAY she is an inspirational public service leader with the Department of Social Services and by afternoons an active role model for netball in the Port Stephens region.

Meet decorated Medowie sporting volunteer Jodi Cassar PSM, the tireless President of Port Stephens Netball Association who has chalked up over three decades of distinguished service to her organisation as a player and official.

Jodi’s passion for netball shines like a beacon and she continues to devote many hours of her time to ensure that grassroots participation in the game is provided for girls and boys – both young and old – across the community.

Earlier this year, a proud Jodi was awarded the Public Service Medal in recognition of her outstanding public service and leadership.

In her role as Branch Manager, Portfolio Response COVID-19 Taskforce, she demonstrated outstanding leadership under pressure in an environment of considerable public interest.

Ms Cassar’s co-ordination and engagement across governments, disability and health sectors and the disability community supported the acceleration of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout for people with disability.

Her work enabled more than 2.5 million doses of the vaccine to be provided to people with disability, access to free rapid antigen tests and ventilation supports.

In addition to this recognition from the Commonwealth, Jodi was one of eleven Community Champions nominated as part of Port Stephens Council’s Annual Awards and was named Sportsperson of the Year for her sterling contributions to grassroots netball administration.

A chuffed Jodi told News Of The Area, “Netball has always been such a great passion, at grassroots level team sports are so important to the social wellbeing of people and netball provides that.

“One of the areas we are really focused on with netball in the Hunter is how we create pathways to pre-elite levels and through the work of Hunter Netball we’re driving a bid with Netball NSW to be part of the Premier League competition,” she revealed.

“This will have great benefits to netballers from across Port Stephens and the greater Hunter region,” Jodi added.

A Life Member of Medowie Netball Club and also Port Stephens Netball Association, Jodi was also awarded the Netball NSW Dot McHugh OAM Administrators Award in 2022 for her outstanding leadership and management of the administration of netball in the Port Stephens community.

Accessibility and inclusion is an important role of the game that Jodi promotes with all programs offered under Netball NSW, being offered at Port Stephens Netball Association.

This includes the Inclusive Netball Uniforms policy introduced by Netball Australia and the growth in boys and mens pathways.

She’s also helped to instigate the inclusion of Acknowledgement of Country prior to all meetings and at the commencement of each playing day.

The accolades don’t stop there.

Jodi was recently nominated by Netball NSW for Volunteer Director of the Year and selected as a finalist at the 2023 Sports Foyer NSW Community Sports Awards to be staged on Thursday June 29 at CommBank Stadium, Parramatta.

Presented by Sport NSW, these Awards recognise outstanding achievements and contributions to community sport in NSW – largely carried out by a volunteer workforce.

By Chris KARAS