A fantastic morning at Whangārei Netball Centre this month with three young coaches coming along to engage with teams and have some fun together.
Young coaches running a futureFERNS skills session at Whangārei Netball Centre
The young coaches were part of the ‘Rangatahi Coaching Pilot’ led by Sport Northland and several regional sports organisations in the area.
Whangārei Netball Centre Board Member, Sue Robertson says the young coaches took some of the yr3/4 teams and ran the warm-up and skills sessions.
“They delivered with confidence and used their knowledge from the pilot programme to great effect” says Sue.
Rangatahi Coaching Pilot
Ellie Eastwood, Sport Northland Regional System Connector, says the pilot’s aim was to get more young people in the area involved in coaching.
Run with five Whangārei schools covering cricket, netball, hockey, touch, football, volleyball and rugby – it worked to give rangatahi the opportunity to learn skills and build confidence.
“At the 1-day pilot workshop, we taught the students the basics of coaching, before they had a practical session with a representative from their chosen sport,” say Ellie.
“We were super grateful to have Sophie Tua (Kamo High School) to teach our netball coaches on the day.”
The Pilot then connected the coaches to their relevant sport centre or organisation for continued development – which is where Sue from Whangārei Netball Centre and Tania Heap from Netball Northern Zone could continue their journey with them.
FutureFERNS coach workshop
Community Coach, Tania Heap, ran the futureFERNS coach workshop with the rangatahi.
She says it was great to see them actively participating and their grasp of the futureFERNS philosophy was refreshing.
“Their focus on coaching in a fun way will be a big asset in ensuring those they go on to coach are fully engaged and enjoying it.”
Sue says it was an all-round success, getting more young people confidently involved in coaching.
Further Rangatahi Coaching Programmes
After the learnings from the initial pilot, Sport Northland are working to extend the programme to the Kaipara, Mid North and Far North.
