The 2020 National Netball Championships will be held in April and Australia’s best young talent will descend on Hobart to represent their state or territory. Today Netball ACT announced the coaching team that will represent and lead the ACT across the six day tournament.
Natalee George will lead the 17 and Under State Team and Victoria Schmahl will head the 19 and Under State Team.
It has been eight years since George was assistant coach of the 17 and Under State Team and she returns to the high-performance program with lots of passion.
“I am pretty excited, I have been involved previously in assistant coach role about eight years ago and I am really looking forward to getting back into the high-performance environment and taking a team away for nationals,” George said.
George brings a love of coaching the 17 and Under age group and is looking to intensify their training by building the pressure. She also wants to help the girls build on their values as a team and develop the culture within the team.
“I absolutely love coaching particularly the 17 and Under age group,” George said.
“A lot of it is about setting up the training environment where the girls being challenged to perform and execute basic skills under pressure, but also really looking at the values of the group and how we can embed that into our training environment and therefore the culture of the team,” George continued.
Victoria Schmahl will head the 19 and Under State Team, as a former state player and a young coach Schmahl brings a unique insight with her.
“I am most looking forward to transitioning in a national environment from a player to a coach, I played for ACT and went to Nationals with them for eight years,” Schmahl said.
Having built her coaching experience through the junior state level, HCF State League and Academy teams Schmahl is looking to build and energetic and encouraging team environment for the girls to thrive in.
“I think one of the main reasons I took this Head Coach role is because I want the players of the ACT to have that experience that I had when I played, somewhere to come and enjoy netball and to get out all their energy and frustration in a team culture,” Schmahl said.
“A place to create lifelong friends and learn discipline, dedication and to bring energy into everything that they attack through life because I think that it all starts with sport and I just want that environment to be there for them,” Schmahl continued.
Netball ACT also welcome the Assistant Coaches and Team Managers who will be working with the 2020 State Team programs:
17 and under Assistant Coach: Emma Stonham
17 and under Manager: Jessica Allardyce
19 and under Assistant Coach: Alex Kellar
19 and under Manager: Denise Dixon.
