The Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic Appoint Ruth Aitken and Debbie Fuller
The Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic (Netball Waikato Bay of Plenty Zone) have appointed Ruth Aitken and Debbie Fuller to be Performance Managers increasing the role left vacant by Margaret Forsyth’s appointment as Head Coach of the Magic.
Both Aitken and Fuller are former Silver Ferns and both are experienced and successful coaches with Aitken being one of New Zealand most successful Silver Ferns coaches and Fuller who lives in Tauranga has had 3 very successful years with the Mystics.
Ruth Aitken is finishing her time with Singapore where she headed the National program for the
National and development squads. Under Aitken, the National Team won their first South East Asia Games gold medal in 2015, instantly bringing national media attention to the sport and encouraging the Singapore Prime Minister and President to both attend the SEA Games final match.
The focus of the Waikato Bay of Plenty Performance Program is to educate coaches and players with the view of providing a pathway for local players to play for the Magic and for future coaches of the Magic to be Waikato Bay of Plenty people just as Aitken, Metcalfe, Forsyth and Fuller are.
In the future representative competitions will be available to all players within each of the 25 Centres and will lead to academies and educational opportunities overseen by Aitken, Fuller with input from Forsyth and Amigene Metcalf (Magic Assistant Coach).
“These appointments are exciting for everyone in our Zone and having a performance program where four internationals (and all successful coaches) are helping educate players and coaches is incredibly exciting for everyone” says Magic Head Coach Margaret Forsyth.
“What we want as an organisation is to have this level of knowledge flowing down into all our representative and club/school coaches so that this experience is shared to as many people as possible. We as a Zone want to be as self-reliant as we possibly can be and produce the best and most imaginative coaches, players and umpires in the country”.
“We are keen to develop a working relationship with Netball Singapore and swop players, coaches and umpires between the two countries and even have Netballing events together, the potential is significant and will make young women want to play Netball in the Magic Zone”, Forsyth added.
