Ahead of the 2025 St.Helens End of Season Awards Dinner, two prizes have already been awarded for our Club Academic Achiever and Club Wellbeing Ambassador this year.
Presented as part of the Saints First Team’s meeting this morning, Saints’ Chaplain & Wellbeing Manager Paul Johnson spoke to our players about the importance of both the awards, before presenting the winners with their trophies.
Met with rapturous applause by their peers, Agnatius Paasi and Konrad Hurrell were given the prizes. Read below to find out why!
The Saints will be revealing the rest of the winners from our End Of Season Awards Dinner later on tonight.
Club Academic Achiever – Agnatius Paasi
With a long-term plan to work in property development after his rugby career, Iggy has sough to develop his skills in electrical installation. After meetings with Associate Club Partners HMS and Hybrid College he enrolled onto a Level 3 apprenticeship programme.
With some financial support from the Rugby League Players Association, and the help of both HMS and Hybrid, he has been able to flourish with his studies and course, studying extra hours when training days clashed with college days, and using time after training to complete the practical elements of his programme on building sites. Agnatius will also complete his CSCS Card, to enable him to use time in the off-season to get ahead of the game and grow in his experience within the industry.
Dave Allen, Key Account Manager at Hybrid College, said, “Agnatius has showed dedication, commitment and a level of professionalism which marks him out as an elite sportsman, who brings that excellent attitude to his studies. He will be an outstanding electrician.” Maybe one of the key things to celebrate is the way that Iggy has raised awareness of this programme with other players, with three players signing up to start the same course in September.”
Well done, Iggy!
Club Wellbeing Ambassador – Konrad Hurrell
Having suffered a significant injury during the 2024 season, Konrad could have withdrawn and become negative, however, he showed a determination to recover and use the time to prepare for life after sport.
At the start of the 2025 season, he completed an Open University course, which helped him to grow his skills around business planning and to develop a business plan for a coffee van enterprise in Australia. He encouraged other members of the squad and staff to look at the same programme, which led to others enrolling and completing the course. Koni has used his presence and personality to encourage younger players to talk and feel relaxed in the First Team environment, and has developed his musical interests and DJ skills to show the power of music and fun in increasing positive mental fitness.
Alongside his positive influence around the playing group, Konrad has been a regular feature at numerous community events and projects. He is often involved at Community Foundation camps to encourage children, young people and families to have fun, engage in rugby league and grow in self-confidence. A strong element of Konrad’s character is his pride in his Tongan heritage, and he has helped with cultural events, ensuring that his national cuisine, music and sense of family and community is celebrated and enjoyed.
Konrad has also shone when visiting local care homes, bringing smiles to the faces of many residents who are living with dementia. There was a very special moment when, a number of months later, the residents visited a Captain’s Run session at the Club. One resident began to laugh and started dancing when he saw Koni, and he had remembered the Christmas visit and was excited to see Koni again. One care home staff member was quite emotional, as this was new behaviour from the resident and they commented about the impact that Konrad’s visit must have had on his life.
Congratulations to Konrad on the award, well done!
