But for 15 year old Danya, the accolade was a total surprise when it was announced at the team's presentation evening by her coach, Sue Whitaker.
"It wasn't until Sue read out everything I'd achieved since starting playing badminton when I was seven, together with the successes during this past year, that I realised just exactly what I HAD achieved - but it was still a shock to be voted Sports Personality of the Year!" says Danya.
Proud parents Terry and Ann and sister Daneka watched as she was presented with the trophy, plus three shields marking particular wins through the year, and the personal gift of a silver dress bag.
She was praised for giving 100 percent to all her matches, achieving so much and also improving her game in the past year. It has seen her competing in the Blackburn matches, for Badminton England tournaments, playing for Lancashire, in the Inter County Midway tournaments, and in the Mid Lancashire U19s tournament.
She has gained gold, silver and bronze medals in singles and doubles contests through the year, marking exceptionally sustained successes in U15, U16, U17 and U19 categories.
Following the Badminton England successes she was selected for the big Lancashire U17 team match at York, where her team came in sixth and all received medals.
Representing Blackburn Town Team once a month, she has not lost any matches and has helped the team to come top and gain promotion for next season.
After delays, the big U16 Rotherham match for Lancashire was finally played mid-March, the team coming top again and winning gold, and the four boys and four girls teams in the following eight-county U16s Inter County Midway match were unbeaten - even against Yorkshire!
Danya did not drop a game, winning all her matches that day, and all the winning players received gold medals.
She was then a last-minute choice to play for Lancashire U17 finals at Leicester in April and, at 15, was the youngest member of the team. But her skills won the day for her again in a medal-winning contest for the team.
April also saw her winning gold in the singles category for Blackburn Tournaments, and she was runner-up in the mixed-handicapped singles.
And in May, her team members each received a trophy for defeating ten other teams in the mid Lancashire U19s Town Team tournament.
Danya will soon be in her last year at Longridge High School, where she will be studying for her GCSE's. A gifted singer - and a choir member at St Paul's in Longridge - she is also on her final Grade 8 studies for singing with coach Alison Swanson.
However, she is still at the younger end of the badminton graph and, with such success and skill achieved in the 11 years since she took up a racquet, it would seem to be a case of 'watch this space' for even more achievements in her chosen sport.