By Jason Carr
•
20 Aug, 2020
There may well be a distinctly Southern hemisphere vibe to training around Bisham Abbey as Great Britain and England women’s head coach Mark Hager is joined by fellow Kiwi Katie Glynn. Hockey writer Sarah Juggins caught up with Hager shortly after the appointment was announced Katie Glynn has been appointed assistant coach to the Great Britain and England women’s national team as they prepare for a return to FIH Pro League action – against Netherlands and Belgium in October. The team will then have a busy 2020 as they prepare for an assault on the EuroHockey Championships [as England] and the Olympic Games as Great Britain next year. The New Zealander has impeccable playing credentials and is renowned as a fearsome and un-compromising player. Hockey fans across the world will remember her heroics for the Black Sticks at the 2012 Olympics as she took to the field in the semi-finals against Great Britain with her head bandaged up after she suffered a blow during the game. Now, Great Britain and England will be looking for her to bring the same fire and determination in her new role as assistant coach. Mark Hager, who has been in situ as head coach since January 2019, was Glynn’s coach during her 134-cap career with the New Zealand Blacksticks, although the former New Zealand coach has not worked with Glynn in a coaching capacity before. “I’ve watched her coach from afar, really,” says Hager. “She has done some age-group stuff in New Zealand, as well as some work with the senior team forwards. What we saw from that, and from the interviews, was her attacking knowledge and experience. What we have seen with the New Zealand [senior] side is that their conversion rate has gone higher – Olivia Merry has become the leading goal scorer in the Pro League over the past two seasons – and Katie has been working with her one-on-one. “She will also bring different ideas to the group. Her role will be very much on the attacking side, particularly the attacking circle, individual skills, penalty corners, free hits outside the circle. Pretty much anything in the attacking third will be Katie’s role.” Glynn’s ability as a forward is well-known. She was her nation’s leading goal scorer with 77 interna-tional goals to her name. And she has plenty of knowledge on the highest levels of the world stage. During her international career, she played in the 2012 Olympic Games, plus the 2010 and 2014 World Cups and two Commonwealth Games. She retired from playing after sustaining a serious in-jury when she was just 26 and has thrown herself into coaching ever since. Her coaching cv to date includes stints with New Zealand U18 and U21 sides before joining Graham Shaw as assistant coach to the New Zealand senior side. For Hager, the fact that Glynn is not long retired from international play is another bonus. “Katie still has that closeness to the game and also is nearer in age to the players. We thought that was an-other thing she would bring to the role – that sort of ability to build strong relationships with the play-ers in the team. “Katie knows the way that I think, hockey-wise, but she will also bring her own perspective. She knows I like to play attacking hockey and the sort of style I play, so we don’t need to spend a lot of time on that. We will probably just do some work around the communication of it. For example, when I was with New Zealand, we used Maori language around some of the calls. So Katie will need to get used to the calls we make, but the concepts remain the same, it is just around the terminology.”