6 January 2005

Hockey Australia helping to develop female coaches

In a move to provide opportunities for female coaches to progress to the elite level, the inaugural six members accepted into Hockey Australia’s new Female Coaching Apprenticeship Program have been announced today.

After receiving a large number of applications, Hockey Australia has accepted six coaches – three from Queensland and one each from New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia - into the program.

The recipients are:

• Rachel Durdin (Brisbane, Qld)

• Kelly Free (Brisbane, Qld)

• Melissa Hall (Perth, WA)

• Alex Lupton (Sydney, NSW)

• Lisa Purcell (Ipswich, Qld)

• Sarah Storen (Geelong, Vic)

Supported by the Australian Sports Commission, the apprenticeship program represents an opportunity for aspiring female hockey coaches to increase their level of knowledge and experience. It is intended to be part-time in nature to enable apprentice coaches to maintain fulltime employment or study.

The two-year program’s goals include:

• To provide qualified Australian women coaches with advanced training opportunities and major competition coaching experience and to prepare them for future coaching opportunities in international competitive events with national teams.

• To facilitate an increase in the number of women coaches who will have access to international games coaching experience.

• To provide all selected program candidates with the opportunity to experience precompetitive training and team selection activities prior to international competitions.

• To support identified women coaches in their on-going professional development through seminars and practical experience.

Recipients will start the program with a two-day workshop in Sydney on the weekend of 5/6 February. State Associations, national and NTC coaching personnel, along with newly appointed Hockey Australia coaching manager David Bell, will liaise in order to provide regular involvement in specific programs/activities for the program members.

The program was developed due to statistical trends similar to those found by the Australian Sports Commission in terms of the number of women holding coaching qualifications and positions. In the past four years only two percent of female hockey coaches have upgraded their coaching accreditation level, and over the past decade, 90% of elite coaching positions were held by men.

 

Matthew Slade

Communications Manager

m: 0409 196 474

e: matthew.slade@hockey.org.au