Applications Now Open For The 2024 ​Finn Lowery Award

The Finn Lowery Award is annually awarded to a player, manager, or coach who best demonstrates Finn’s qualities of courage and excellence. The Trustees of the Foundation consider all nominations that are within our community. The nomination form for applications can be found below. 

A reminder that the recipient of the award receives $2500 to go towards their future endeavours. 
Applications for the award will be open until the 30th April 2024. The application that is selected to receive the award will be announced at a FLF event in May 2024.   

For any queries please contact the Foundation via our Contact page. 

Darcy Spark & Sammie Bentley - 2023 Finn Lowery Award recipients

​Darcy Spark
Darcy attended both Carmel College and Rangitoto College and excelled in her 5 years playing premier school water polo. In 2022 Darcy was year 13 at Rangitoto and the team won the National Secondary Schools championship. Darcy is a member of the North Harbour Hammerheads senior women’s team, and is also the youngest member of the NZ Senior women’s team. In the past 2 years she has represented New Zealand at several world events at both youth and senior levels and later this month she will travel to Long Beach, California, to play in the World Aquatics World Cup Women’s Finals. 
Away from playing the sport she loves, Darcy is also heavily involved in Water Polo as a coach and a referee. She has coached both club and school teams as well as coaching at the various clinics and school holiday programmes that the club offers its younger members. This year Darcy has had to support her family through a difficult situation when her home was yellow stickered after the January Auckland Floods.
Later this winter Darcy will be relocating to USA to become a student athlete at San Jose State University, a Division 1 water polo programme on a scholarship. 
 
Sammie Bentley
Like Darcy, Sammie was also a member of the Rangitoto Premier water polo team that won the National Championship in 2022. She has been a committed member of our sport since her primary school days and has achieved significant recognition at a national level. In 2022 she was a member of the travelling group which attended the Youth World Championships in Serbia, and she was also a member of the NZ u20 team which travelled to Australia for a test series towards the end of last year. Sammie is a member of the NH Hammerheads senior women’s team, which currently sits first in the New Zealand national league standings.
Sammie gives up much of her spare time to coaching and refereeing junior school and club water polo. A member of her Murray’s Bay Intermediate team described her as a “super fun coach who always made sure we played the right way”. You will often see Sammie on the side of the pool, teaching and encouraging her players with a big smile on her face. Sammie has faced adversity and disappointment in missing out on team selections in the past, but she has handled these disappointments with humility and resilience and has remained a constant support to her team mates.
Sammie is also the proud recipient of a scholarship to attend a US University and later this year she will relocate to Marist College in New York State, a Division 1 water polo programme.

Testimonials
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"Winning the Finn Lowery Scholarship for 2022 was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my year. Finn was one of my water polo idols when I first joined the NHWP Turtles team in 2017. His work ethic and team first attitude was and still is an inspiration to me, and getting the chance to play with him  in my first year is something I will always remember.

​This award meant so much to me not just because of the financial assistance it provided, but for the recognition from the foundation. The money from this scholarship has enabled me to continue training with the New Zealand Men's team, something I would have struggled to do without it. It also helped me go to Australia last year with the men's team, and take part in a great trip and the Sydney Super League. 

​The work the Finn Lowery Foundation has done and continues to do in the North Harbour Water Polo community has directly influenced and helped people close to me, and I am forever grateful for that. Finn's passing was a tragedy for the community, his family and friends, but the fact that good has come out of this tragedy, is truly inspiring me and others towards the future. Finn’s name will live on and people will continue to receive assistance from this fund and hopefully help them to be the best they can be - as Finn always was."

James Catlin, 2022 recipient of the Finn Lowery Award

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"The money that I received from the Finn Lowery foundation means so much to me not only for the financial support that it provided but also it has helped me get recognized by New Zealand waterpolo. When the NZ squad was announced, I was part of the initial squad. I was also part of the winning team at college nationals where I was named MVP. I believe that the Finn Lowery award I received has helped me to become  noticed by coaches and officials opening up many opportunities for myself. Most notably of these opportunities is the scholarship I received for getting MVP. This award enables me to further advance my waterpolo career and I owe it to the support of the coaches around me at North Harbour, and supportive organisations like the Finn Lowery foundation."

Luke Blackburn, 2021 recipient of the Finn Lowery Award

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The FLF scholarship means a lot to me because I feel like it has improved my resilience and confidence. I have never been awarded something so big and it has shown me that I can do so much more than I thought I could even in life not just water polo.  The water polo community will always be there for me no matter what and will help me with whatever is going on in your life because we are one big family. I have been through some painful experiences over the past couple of years and the club and community came on board and helped me and my family.

Because I received this award I am now coaching a lot more in the club. I am coaching Sunday skills clinics, TAP, intermediate schools, U16, U12 and have began reffing so my plate is full and I am loving it. This award has given me confidence to try things that sometimes look too hard! My rangitoto prems team also came 1st after coming 2nd to the same team for 5 years straight which made history for us. I played in the Tier 2 Womens team and am playing U18s this season and I am thankful for the money that has helped me become a more confident person. An award is not won on being the best at your sport, it is being committed and passionate and I know I have that. I hope I will be poolside coaching for the club for many years

Ella Roberts, 2021 recipient of the Finn Lowery Award