By PEACE IJIYERA

 

MORWELL local, Emily Sutton was the recipient of this year’s Latrobe City Youth Citizen of the Year.

Ms Sutton was recognised for her work promoting sports in the community and her involvement in the Changing Gippsland’s Game network.

A decorated athlete, Ms Sutton has a long history of playing a myriad of sports and dancing all around the Valley.

She has danced and played at many clubs and teams including, Morwell Junior Football Club, Morwell Basketball Association, Morwell Netball Association, Hill End Football-Netball Club, Morwell East FNC, Gippsland Sports Academy, Netball Victoria Talent Academy, Latrobe Valley Netball Region and Gippsland Academy of Dance.

Growing up in Morwell, Ms Sutton says it was nice to live in an area where sports were readily available and accessible.

“(Growing up in Morwell) was pretty good. (There was) lots of sport around the area to do, so (that) always kept me busy. I did netball, dance, pretty much anything, so it kept me entertained,” she said.

Ms Sutton attended primary school at St Vincent de Paul, Morwell and secondary school at Trafalgar High School from Years 7-10.

At both schools, Ms Sutton took part in many sport activities and dominated in school athletics, representing the schools in all different types of sports, her main squeeze being netball.

At the end of Year 10, Ms Sutton left Trafalgar High School to continue her education at SEDA College.

Describing her experience at SEDA as “the best”, Ms Sutton says that the school gave her ample opportunities to develop her leadership and confidence skills.

“I was a student leader in Year 12, and it really gave me the confidence to go out and be a leader. We did all these confidence days and leadership days, which really helped me and my confidence. During the week, we would go and deliver sport clinics for schools and really practice our leadership there,” she recalled.

“On a Friday, we would do student workplace learning, so we would go into a workplace and learn what it’s like to be at work.”

These confidence and leadership skills that Ms Sutton learnt from SEDA were useful in her role as netball coach for the under 13s Morwell East FNC, which she has been coaching for the past three years.

Ms Sutton has been a loyal member of the club since she began playing in under 15s.

For her, coaching is more than just telling the girls what to do, it’s about creating connections and building relationships, encouraging them to grow and develop their skills.

As a result, the girls look up to Ms Sutton and see her as a role model.

“(Being able to coach the girls is) very rewarding. You can tell they look up to me because they tell me at training that they want to be like me, so it’s very nice to hear, it’s very cute,” she said.

“It’s the best feeling in the world, I reckon.”

All for women empowerment, Ms Sutton’s involvement in the Changing Gippsland Games network has seen her assist in running a campaign called Gippy Girls Can. #GippyGirlsCan is an inclusive group that encourage women to be active, irrespective of shape, size, or levels of ability.

“We’re trying to really promote women’s sport and really get some more women active,” she said.

When Ms Sutton received her youth citizen of the year award on Australia Day, she says it came as a “shock” to her.

“I feel pretty honoured. It was a bit of a shock to be honest, but I felt good. I was very honoured to win that award.”

In 2025, Ms Sutton completed a Certificate IV in Sport Development, and has now gone on to working full time at GippSport.

“I’m loving working there (GippSport), loving going out into the community teaching little kids how to play sport and things like that, it’s a very rewarding job.”

Turning 20 this year, Ms Sutton is looking towards the future. Though a little uncertain about where her career will take her, all she knows is that she wants to continue to serve the community and help kids fall in love with sport like she did.