It was announced yesterday former Otago and South coach Lauren Piebenga would fill the role left vacant by new head coach, Reinga Bloxham. Piebenga steps up after guiding South to a championship in the national development league this year. Prior to that she coached Otago to a national title in 2013 and had also coached the Netball South under-23 team.
"I’m definitely really excited with the opportunity and looking forward to getting stuck into it," Piebenga said.
"It’s nice to transition into that professional area, and being able to just focus solely on netball will be a real change for me, so it should be good.’’Piebenga will be based in Dunedin and will have several planning meetings in December, before the team assembles in mid-January.
"I’ll be relatively new to the block, so I’ll be looking to bring plenty of enthusiasm and a bit of experience with some of the players. I’ve worked with a number of them through the different programmes, so, hopefully, that will give me a bit of front-foot start."
Piebenga travelled with the Steel to its pre-season tournament in Auckland last year and had been to training and team meetings. That had given her exposure to the workings of the setup, which would be beneficial.
Steel chief executive Lana Winders was very happy with the outcome.
"We went through our normal recruitment process and interviewed a number of candidates. She came out on top as our strongest candidate, for obvious reasons," Winders said.
Being a local product worked in Piebenga’s favour. However, her experience and success record were the key factors in her winning the role, as was the effort she had put into developing her ability.
"It is an advantage [being local] because we know them and we’ve invested in them in terms of their development," Winders said.
"Nobody’s perfect, everyone’s got strengths and work-ons, but because we know Lauren, we feel like we’ve got a really good fix on that. Reinga [Bloxham] in particular thinks they’ll make a good team."
The decision left a vacancy for the South national development league head coach position. Candidates would be invited to apply. Winders was confident there would be some good applicants capable of taking over.
"It’s not lost on me, the domino effect that I’ve created for myself.
"That’s the way pathways work. Reinga’s stepped through to the head coach and now Lauren’s stepped through and that’s created a chance for a new Beko [national development league] coach to step through. That’s what it’s all about, creating opportunities for our local talent.
"Within Otago and Southland there are coaches right now that would be fantastic Beko league head coaches. I wouldn’t be looking outside of Otago and Southland."
