Phoebe Litchfield and Peter Brus added to their already decorated resumes on Thursday night, the duo taking out the junior and senior sportsperson of the year awards during Orange City Council's ceremony.
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A dual sports phenom, Phoebe Litchfield is coming off a bumper 12 months in which she represented Australia in both cricket and hockey, as well as making her Big Bash debut for the Sydney Thunder last summer.
But it's not just the work you put in on the field that makes you an exceptional athlete and sport and recreation councillor Jason Hamling commended the 17-year-old for always giving back to the community.
"It's an amazing effort," Hamling said.
"In her spare time she does get home and goes around and has a look at all the junior games in Orange.
"She's a great role model and it gives us someone to cheer for in the Big Bash... it's fantastic."
Peter Brus received the open-age sportsperson of the year award as he was recognised for a stellar calendar year in 2019 with his highlight in the shape of a history-making WA1500 World Championship win.
Peter's father Dean has previously won this award as the pairing has achieved great heights in the pistol shooting world.
Joel Begnell was humbled after he was nominated for the volunteers category and will likely be even happier after Thursday night as the touch football powerhouse was announced the winner.
"If you don't have volunteers, you don't have a club or organisation," Hamling said.
"The rep teams are now getting more Orange kids selected with higher rep honours."
The Kinross Wolaroi rowing squad was a deserving winner from the team of the year category as the group received a gold medal at the Australian Rowing Championships.
The group has remarkably gone undefeated throughout 2018 and 2019 without ever training in a river.
"It's amazing isn't it," Hamling said.
"Most of the schools that they've beaten around Australia would have a river to train on.
"Our team from Kinross gets to go to Spring Creek so it's an amazing effort."
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