The 19-year-old recently completed his traineeship with the Catholic Education Diocese of Wagga Wagga, and has been offered a full-time position as the region's sports co-ordinator.

In June, he took out the coveted Trainee of the Year Award at the Riverina Training Awards, and on Thursday night he beat five other finalists to be awarded the state prize.

To get to this point has been a long process, involving several rounds of interviews and written testimonials of his high-quality work.

As part of his role, Mr Heffernan regularly travels across the Riverina to work with 31 individual schools in the Catholic diocese.

"I run the sports carnivals for the schools, both the regional and state carnivals," he said.

"The farthest school I'd have to travel to is in Griffith, so I'd go there every couple of weeks.

"It's a challenging job, there is a lot of organisation, but it's pretty rewarding."