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Black Sticks striker Charlotte Harrison - Source: Getty -
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Black Sticks coach Mark Hager's highly successful year with the Black Sticks Women has been capped with a vital injection of financial support from SPARC, which will enable Hager to continue to develop his promising squad, at the highest international level in 2010.
The Black Sticks Women have been awarded $650,000 through the contestable funding process as well as $100,000 in service credits to enable provision of sports science services to the athletes via the Academy of Sport.
The decision reinforces the development of Hockey New Zealand's High Performance Programme to a truly world class level, entailing the establishment of world class coaching, game and player analysis, game strategy, player case management and monitoring and specialist support services from the Academy of Sport.
The funding boost rewards consistently good performances by the Black Sticks Women in 2009.
The Women beat Australia to win the Oceania Cup in August in Invercargill and then went on to win the Champions Challenge in South Africa last month. As a result the Women moved two places up the World Rankings, from 11th to 9th.
In 2010 the Black Sticks Women will contest the Champions Trophy being hosted by England in July, the World Cup in Argentina in August and the Commonwealth Games in India in October.
Martin Toomey, Sparc's High Performance Director said the investment decision was based on the improvement in the Black Sticks Women's programme both on and off the field. Considerable improvement has been made in both preparation and performance as a result of Hockey's High Performance review in 2008.
Mark Hager is delighted the support will allow the Black Sticks to play more matches against the world's top teams which is important for the young side's development. "It allows us to travel to competitions when invited. It will also mean we can provide competition for the whole squad of 25, which is important to develop depth," he said.
The funding will also enable the side to prepare off field and develop its strength and conditioning programme. Hager plans to bring in a sport psychologist into his programme, for the first time.
"I greatly appreciate the support SPARC has given us for 2010 and realise we also need to perform well next year to ensure future investment," Hager said.
Hockey New Zealand CEO Hilary Poole said she was delighted with the confidence shown by SPARC. "The investment will enable the Black Sticks Women to achieve their goal of winning consistently on the world stage and earning medals at major international competitions."
"We realise we have some way to go. An important aspect of this investment is that it will allow us to put our own resources into our Junior High Performance Programme to ensure there is depth of talent coming through," Poole said. "It also enables us to invest in the development of the sport generally and build our commercial model."
The announcement completes an outstanding two week period for Hockey New Zealand, following a day after the Black Sticks Men won the BDO Men's World Cup Qualifier in Invercargill to claim a coveted starting position at the 2010 Men's World Cup in February in New Delhi. The Black Sticks beat Malaysia 2-1 in the final on Sunday.
The success ensures the Men's funding support from SPARC will continue through 2010.
