Northern Territory referee, Tim Pearson, was recognised for his achievements over the past 12 months last Friday, when he was named the Official of the Year at the 2012 NT Sports Awards.

The NT Official of the Year award recognises an individual who has achieved outstanding results in officiating at an international and/or national level.

2011 was a very successful year for Pearson, which included him refereeing at the Elite Eight series held in conjunction with the 2011 X-Blades National Touch League, as well officiating at the 2011 Federation of International Touch (FIT) World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland in June last year. To add to this, Pearson achieved his Level 6 badge at the 2012 X-Blades National Touch League earlier this month.

Pearson was named the recipient of the award ahead of Michael Riley (international Practical Shooting) and Stephen Versteegh (Hockey) and says that he was honoured to receive the award.

“You don’t get into refereeing or officiating to get acknowledgment, I got into it as I didn’t like the way other people were doing it and was loud enough to have a say and I figured if I was going to whinge about someone else I may as well give them the opportunity to have a whinge about me. It is nice when you get something like this come back and you do get acknowledged for the work that you do and the achievements that you get,” Pearson said.

“The things that I’ve been able to achieve in Touch Football wouldn’t be possible without the national body, Touch Football Australia, in particular the Northern Territory Touch Association and particularly the Appo family who have helped me out a lot. (As well as) Alice Springs Touch, the NT Government who did contribute to both myself and another nominee, Mark Tibbits, to attend the World Cup in Scotland and the local businesses of Alice Springs and the Northern Territory and just individuals who hear that you’ve been selected to go and represent Australia…people just fronted up and put their hand in their pocket and handed over assistance and just said ‘here I hope this helps’.”

2011 World Cup Australian Senior Mixed representative, Mark Tibbits, was also a finalist at the awards ceremony for the NT Masters Sportsperson of the Year award, which was won by Lucie Hardiman (Athletics).

Touch Football Australia would like to congratulate Tim Pearson on his Official of the Year award as well as Mark Tibbits for being a finalist for the Masters Sportsperson of the Year award.

To view the awards ceremony, please click on the following link:

http://www.ntmajorevents.com.au/ntsportsawards/media-release/