Wattie’s Baked Beans Volunteer Coach of the Year

Wattie’s Baked Beans Volunteer Coach of the Year National Judging Panel Fact Sheet

August 2004
The national judging panel for the Wattie’s Baked Beans Volunteer Coach of the Year awards is this year comprised of sporting experts and representatives from both SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) and Wattie’s. They will have the difficult but exciting task of deciding on a national volunteer coach winner and two runners up. Mike McHugh, Coach Consultant SPARC & assistant coach to the NZ Tall Ferns Mike is the chair of the Wattie’s Baked Beans Volunteer Coach of the Year national judging panel. With over 30 years of coaching experience he knows what it takes to make a great volunteer coach. Mike is currently the coach of the Wellington Saints and assistant coach to the NZ Tall Ferns. His role with SPARC involves developing and implementing New Zealand’s Coaching Strategy.

Waimarama Taumaunu, former New Zealand Silver Fern From 1981 to 1991 Waimarama Taumaunu represented New Zealand in Netball. During that time she was captain for three years and was a player in the 1987 world championship winning team. Today Waimarama is the senior coach to the Wellington Netball Region and is the Campaign Manager for CoachForce at SPARC. Waimarama says that the most important attributes of coaching are knowing the game, listening, communicating and caring.

Don Tricker, Coach Team Leader SPARC & former volunteer coach of the New Zealand Black Sox A variety of sports have played a big part in Don Tricker’s life, but in his late teens he decided that softball was the game for him and since then he has not looked back. Don believes that coaching is an incredibly rewarding experience. He describes the role of a coach as delivering a unique service which involves planning, communication, facilitation, flexibility and leadership.

Bernice Mene, former New Zealand Silver Fern Bernice Mene was a part of the Silver Ferns from 1992 to 2002. During that time she was the captain for three years and played in over 80 tests. Bernice is now self-employed and works as an ACE Advisor for the NZ Academy of Sport, a Guardian for Secondary Futures Education project and is involved in numerous programmes for Sport Auckland and Paralympics NZ. She says that the time, commitment and enthusiasm of volunteer coaching is often undervalued but the strength of sport in New Zealand relies on it.

Jeni Pearce, Sports Dietitian Jeni Pearce is one of New Zealand’s leading sports dietitians and is well-known for her books, public lectures, articles and private clinics. Jeni has worked with a number of national and international sports people, teams and development squads. Jeni says the level of commitment to sport in New Zealand is fantastic and it is great to see volunteer coaches encouraging people to be active.

ENDS

© Scoop Media