Stafford was presented with the award at the Hockey NSW presentation night at Bankstown Sports Club last week.

Stafford coached six elite teams this year, as well as running the Southern Highlands competition.

His best result was winning the national championships with the under-15s girls NSW team.

He also coached the Open Arrows team to fourth place at the National Titles.

Stafford coached the Southern Highlands women’s open team to a division one State Title and the under-18s Southern Highlands girls team, that narrowly missed out on their title.

The opens team promotion into the State league has been denied due to the State Titles being interrupted by poor weather that resulted in the Newcastle teams not attending.

The suspension of the relegation promotion system is unprecedented and Stafford said he was very unhappy with the situation.

The Highlands Association plan to appeal the decision made by the State and National Competition Committee in September.

The 48 year-old also coaches in Sydney and coached the Gordon North Shore women’s team to a grand final win in Sydney first grade this year.

This was the inaugural year of the Hockey awards, which have not been held for some time, according to Stafford.

Stafford said he was quite surprised to win.

“I was not really thinking about it and was just enjoying the evening. I did not know what the criteria was, so to win was very surprising,’ he said.

Stafford said what he enjoys most about coaching at an elite level is the opportunity to travel and meet great athletes.

“I have travelled to most capital cities this year and met a lot of great people,” he said.