NZAS - North Island
NZAS North Island Transition
- Peter Pfitzinger
NZASN are delighted to have been selected by SPARC as the preferred supplier to provide the NZAS regional operations for the North Island. We are currently negotiating a contract with SPARC, which will start 1 July.
Key priorities between now and 30 June include:
- Meeting stakeholders from Wellington and the rest of the current NZAS Central region to understand their concerns and learn how to best serve their needs
- Working closely with NZAS Central to ensure a smooth transition for carded athletes and coaches
- Altering the NZASN constitution to change our name and regional coverage to the North Island, and a variety of related legal changes
- Establishing a significant base location and appropriate staffing for the NZAS North Island in Wellington
- Communicating with service providers and training facilities in the lower half of the North Island so the North Island network is fully operational by 1 July
Communicating with service providers and training facilities in the lower half of the North Island so the North Island network is fully operational by 1 July.
Coaching Breakfast with Eddie Kohlase
- Eddie Kohlase
The first NZASN Coaching breakfast for 2007 was held recently with coaches coming along to catch up on coaching ideas and to listen to Black Sox Coach Eddie Kohlase on his thoughts on coaching. Kohlase, in the hot seat talked about how he uses a mentoring programme for bringing on new players and the importance of succession planning for bringing on new captains / leaders within a team. “It is good to develop people within the team to share the burden of leadership”, he said. The Black Sox head to Canada later this year as part of their build up to the 2009 World Championships. Kohlase, known for his strong leadership skills has also received a Prime Minister’s Coaching Scholarship to go through an 18 month Hillary leadership course through University of Auckland to widen his knowledge even further. We look forward to hearing from him further on this topic again soon.
Coaches who were at the breakfast included Kiwis league coach Brian McLennan, NZ Womens Football Coach John Herdman, Athletics Coach John Bowden and Triathlon Coach Barry Larsen.
PMAS Anti-doping seminars
The NZASN held two anti-doping seminars last month for Prime Minister’s Athlete scholarship recipients with 118 athletes attending in Auckland (75) and Hamilton (43) – a record number! Drug Free Sport NZ presented two new concepts at the seminar – the Pledge and Text services for athletes.
The Pledge
The ‘strong enough to be clean’ pledge creates an opportunity for athletes to make a stand against the use of banned substances and methods in their sports. Pledged athletes can be easily identified by the green arm band that they wear while training or competing. The athletes name is also presented on the pledge website, alongside thousands of others who are making a stand against doping in sport.
Text service for athletes
Drug Free Sport NZ has just made it even easier to check on the status of a medication in sport with “Drug space”. Drug space allows you to check txt a message to 556 and receive valuable information back within seconds. To use find out how to use the service, simple txt “Drug info” to 556 and you will receive a text back with instructions on how to use the service.
During the Anti-doping Seminar athletes gain knowledge and understanding of how drug testing works including:
- Who is subject to testing
- What does a drug test involve
- What are an athlete’s rights and responsibilities
- How the Drug testing process is operated both nationally and internationally
There will be another anti-doping seminar in the second semester in the North for those athletes who were unable to attend this one.
Profile NZASN Coaching Advisor Lynda O’Cain
- Lynda O'Cain
NZASN Coaching Advisor Lynda O’Cain has been with the NZASN team for 18 months working closely with coaches in the Northern Region. Lynda’s role is to help provide coaches with support in their coaching roles as well as professional development to assist their coaching. O’Cain works with over 20 coaches in the Northern region, including MISH sprint coach Marlon Gavaerts, National Yachting Coach Nathan Handley and Triathlon Coach Barry Larson to name a few.
But O’Cain is also involved in coaching herself at the highest level. As Coach of the Junior White Sox Softball Team, Lynda is soon to head to Holland for the Junior World Championships, held every 4 years. Lynda has been involved in coaching the Junior White Sox team for 10 years and head coach for the last three. “The biggest challenge is finding time to do things well as a volunteer coach working in a national programme,” O’Cain comments. “It seems to be all about how to work smartly with the time and resources I have”, something many coaches can relate to in New Zealand.
This is not her first experience coaching a national side - she was the National Coach of the Czech Republic Women’s team for two years between 1997 – 1998 taking them to the Womens World Champs in Japan and is currently also coaching an Auckland women’s club team. Lynda also coached the Canterbury Women’s softball to 5 consecutive National titles between 1996 – 2000. Lynda was once a national softball representative herself representing NZ from 1988 to 1990 so offers huge amounts of personal coaching and athlete experiences when working with coaches.
As a carded coach, Lynda was also the successful recipient of a Prime Minister’s coaching scholarship for 2007. In January, she travelled to the USA as part of this scholarship to go to San Diego State University with the USA National Fastpitch Coaches College as part of their masters programme, presented by two of the legends within Women’s softball world wide. She also spent a day observing the San Diego State University’s team pre-season preparation. “It was an insight into what the most successful country is doing in Women’s softball”, commented O’Cain.
Lynda finds working with the NZASN Team a “chance to indulge in my passion every day – coaching”. “The Carded coach programme allows coaches to have a support person working with them, providing an objective point of view and giving opportunities to develop new ideas in coaching”. O’Cain heads to the World Championships on the 11th June for 8 days preparation aiming to “create an environment where, “we can put out our best performance consistently”, before the World Championships begin on the 20th June.
New Team member joins NZ Academy of Sport North
It is a pleasure to announce that Karin Adelinger-Smith has joined the NZASN full-time. Karin has been an ACE advisor for 6 years and during that time also worked for the Millennium Institute and more recently for North Shore City Council. In her new role with NZAS North Island, Karin will continue as an ACE Advisor, and will also manage the Avenues Programme for the North Island, manage marketing projects for part of the year covering staff who are on maternity leave, as well as contributing to IPP's and case management. Please join us in welcoming Karin to her new full-time role.
Updated | 08 Oct 2007.
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