Amigene Metcalfe will be the new head coach of the Waikato-BOP Magic netball team.
Former Silver Fern and Cambridge local Amigene Metcalfe was this week announced as the new head coach of the Waikato-BOP Magic netball team for the 2019 ANZ Premiership.
The former St Peter’s School phys-ed and health teacher said it was an honour to coach for a franchise she had been heavily involved with.
“I feel very proud to have been given the opportunity to coach a team I love,” she said. “It’s certainly a role I know comes with huge responsibility and expectations and I look forward to the exciting challenges ahead.”
“We are really excited to have someone with Amigene’s knowledge of the elite game and someone who has a strong connection with the players and also the region,” said Magic chief executive Rohan West. “It is a unique position that we have our Waikato-BOP Magic player #1 now coaching the next generation of Magic netballers.”
Metcalfe led Waikato-BOP Netball to a number of titles as a mid-courter during the former National Bank Cup, and captained the side during the inaugural ANZ Championship season. She was also the club’s High Performance co-ordinator and more recently the assistant coach during the ANZ Premiership.
But netball isn’t the only sport that helped Amigene Metcalfe earn a star on the Cambridge Sports Walk of Fame. She represented New Zealand as a sprinter and long jumper as a junior, winning a medal at the 1988 Pan Pacific Games. Between 1994 and 2003 she played for the New Zealand Touch team, playing as captain in two of three World Cups, and leading the team to their first ever win over Australia in 2001.
She played with Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic from 1999 to 2006 and 2008 to 2009 – a total of 89 games – and captained Magic to titles in 2005 and 2006 and runner-up in 2008. She also played for the Silver Ferns from 2002 to 2005. She takes over from Margaret Forsyth who has been at the Magic helm during the first two years of New Zealand’s elite league.
