Playball Bondi kicks goals as business awards finalist

When Tammy Ceppi landed in Australia from South Africa in 1998 with two suitcases and a decade of experience teaching young children in Johannesburg, she brought with her the firm belief that physical confidence is built, not born.

That belief became Playball, the eastern suburbs children’s movement and sport program now named a finalist in the 2026 Waverley Best Business Awards.

Ceppi said she created the program after years of watching the same thing play out.

“The child standing at the edge of the park while everyone else runs in. The one who hangs back at lunchtime because they cannot catch, or kick, or keep up. The child on holiday who watches the beach game from the towel, or who lasts one season at the local sports club and quietly never goes back,” she told The AJN. “That hesitation is rarely about ability. It is about a child who has never been given the chance to build the skills.”

Twenty-eight years on, Playball has grown well beyond a sports class for little ones. Together with Coach Al, Ceppi developed a structured program that uses movement and sport to work on the whole child, including motor skills and coordination, but also social and emotional development, communication, school-transition readiness and self-regulation. Every lesson wraps up the same way, with a quiet moment designed to teach children how to settle their bodies and minds.