Young coach earmarks 2014 Commonwealth Games as first step for a sport that is thriving despite its lack of Olympic status.
When England's netball coach Anna Mayes was 16 she had one ambition. "I told my mum I wanted to coach England," laughs the 32-year-old. Two years ago Mayes was appointed to that very role, having already worked with the Under 21s, and her approach has yielded phenomenal results. In Mayes' first month England won the world series, and earlier this year her side whitewashed the world champions, Australia, in a 3-0 series win (previously England had only ever beaten Australia twice, in 1981 and in 2010). England remain unbeaten in 2013.
Despite the fact that most of England's players work or study full-time Mayes, herself an autoethnography PhD student, leads a squad that is wholeheartedly professional in its outlook. Players such as the captain, Pamela Cookey, now fit in morning and evening training sessions around their day jobs, in Cookey's case a demanding role as a site services manager working for an aircraft manufacturer. From the outset the Swindon-born coach outlined an unwavering vision of where the sport should be heading. "I wanted to do something in English netball that had never been done before," she says now, "so in 2019 our mission statement is: we want to be world champions."
Click Here to read more...
When England's netball coach Anna Mayes was 16 she had one ambition. "I told my mum I wanted to coach England," laughs the 32-year-old. Two years ago Mayes was appointed to that very role, having already worked with the Under 21s, and her approach has yielded phenomenal results. In Mayes' first month England won the world series, and earlier this year her side whitewashed the world champions, Australia, in a 3-0 series win (previously England had only ever beaten Australia twice, in 1981 and in 2010). England remain unbeaten in 2013.
Despite the fact that most of England's players work or study full-time Mayes, herself an autoethnography PhD student, leads a squad that is wholeheartedly professional in its outlook. Players such as the captain, Pamela Cookey, now fit in morning and evening training sessions around their day jobs, in Cookey's case a demanding role as a site services manager working for an aircraft manufacturer. From the outset the Swindon-born coach outlined an unwavering vision of where the sport should be heading. "I wanted to do something in English netball that had never been done before," she says now, "so in 2019 our mission statement is: we want to be world champions."
Click Here to read more...
