Basketball coach Jaimee Marsh is in the running for a statewide Young Achiever Leadership Award.
The Glenbrook resident started the Pink Squad Girls Only basketball program at Springwood Basketball Association three years ago, significantly increasing female participation in the sport.
This season there are 115 women playing in competition, plus 37 girls involved in learn to play development sessions.
She went on to launch the Ball 4 All program, so that young people with a disability can take part in the sport.
"There was a need for it in the Mountains," the 20-year-old said.
Due to a clash in commitments with her university studies for a medical science degree, Miss Marsh has handed over the reigns of both programs to new coaches.
She also coaches at holiday clinics, in schools and the association's under 12 boys team, and looks after the association's social media.
It's the team nature of the sport that Miss Marsh loves so much.
"It's the community. It's a team sport, you have to rely on other people, it's good socialising," she said.
Three other Blue Mountains residents have been nominated for 7News Young Achiever Awards.
Ashlee Koller, 29, from Winmalee is in the running for the Academic Achievement Award. She teaches English and drama at Richmond High School, believing in celebrating success in all its forms and levels, for the smallest step a student makes in the right direction can have an overall large impact on their future education.
Bianca Duffell, 27, from Yellow Rock is up for an Early Childhood Educator Award. "Bianca has shown great intuition of children's needs, putting together activities and materials that reflect the interests that children have indicated, or developmental needs that she has identified," said her nominator Carmen Parker, the early childhood director at at Children's House Montessori.
Jessica Platts, 23, is the manager of Federation Gardens and Possums Hideaway, an accommodation facility in Blackheath. She was nominated by the business's owner, Robyn Lindsay, for a Leadership Award, who said she has a 'gift' to interact well with others, be they guests, staff or suppliers. The accommodation hosts more than 4,000 visitors a year, many of whom leave glowing reviews about Jessica on TripAdvisor.
Finalists will be presented and winners announced at an awards gala presentation dinner on March 20 next year. One of the category winners will be named the 2020 NSW/ACT Young Achiever of the Year.
