Adam Coote is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

boundary umpire and sprinter. He has umpired 383 games, including 31 final matches and five grand finals (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2010R) since making his debut in the 2005 season. In 2006 he was awarded the Bill Sutton Medallion for the best first or second year AFL boundary umpire. He continued to build on that early success and was the All Australian boundary umpire in both the 2008 and 2009 seasons. He was also awarded the Murray Williams Shield in 2012 for his contribution to the AFLUA and umpiring. Coote has umpired the third highest number of AFL games for a boundary umpire. Coote is from Pomborneit, near Camperdown in south-western Victoria. Coote began umpiring with the Colac and District Football Umpires Association when he was 14.

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) umpires manager Jeff Gieschen has said that Coote is one of the most powerful boundary umpires in the AFL. Coote practised throw-ins with half a brick at his house to build his strength. Coote completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Exercise and Sport Science) at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

in 2004. Coote was named the Victorian Runners and Trainers association Athlete of the Year for the 2009/10 season. This came after he won the 800-metre title at the

Stawell Gift The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short-distance running race. It is the main event in an annual carnival held on Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, S ...

in 2010. For the 2011 Stawell Gift, Coote switched from middle distance to sprinting to contest the more prestigious 120-metre sprint. He made the semi-finals, but came third and did not qualify for the final. In 2012 he again competed in the sprint, and despite umpiring an AFL game in Brisbane on the Thursday before, Coote won his heat and semi final before finishing third in the final. Coote again competed in the Stawell Gift in 2013, running second in his heat and earning a semi-final berth. He felt "flattened" from umpiring the Carlton vs Richmond game on the preceding Thursday. Coote was then scratched from the semi-final after tearing his hamstring in the warm up. Coote returned to professional sprinting for the 2013/2014 season, recording a very narrow loss in the SAAL Bay Sheffield final on 28 December 2013 won by Queensland beach sprinter Ben Mispelhorn. Coote then ventured to Tasmania for the

Burnie Gift The Burnie Gift is a professional footrace held in Burnie, Tasmania during an annual sports carnival, held on a grass track at West Park Oval on New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly th ...

on New Year's Day. He excelled in the wet and windy conditions, winning by 3 metres, the biggest winning margin in recent times, in a time of 12.78 seconds from his 9.50m handicap.

References

http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking-news/queensland-beach-runner-ben-mispelhorn-and-was-kiara-reddingius-are-bay-sheffield-winners/story-fnect155-1226791192389 http://www.examiner.com.au/story/2001071/afl-boundary-umpire-coote-wins-burnie-gift/ Australian Football League umpires Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Sports-official-bio-stub