King was manager of the Central Region under-18 men’s team two seasons ago, so it was a step up to coach the team for the first time.
“It was a lot of work because of all the travelling involved,” he said.
“I’ve had only two weekends off since the end of Term 1, with trials in Hawke’s Bay, Whanganui and Levin, and then plenty of coaching sessions out of the district on top of that.
“I’m pretty stoked that we did so well in the tournament.
“I was really happy with the performance of the whole team.”
He said they built a team culture around “process”, the systems put in place for play, and the relationships, connections and communication between players.
“We were in some pretty dark places in some games, but in the end our processes produced the results.
“Cool heads, fire in the heart — that was our mantra for the tournament.”
King teaches at Campion College, where he also coaches the school’s hockey programme.
The 45-year-old played for Lytton Old Boys before retiring as a player two years ago to concentrate on coaching, and he has been involved with hockey’s Pathways programme.
He said New Zealand Hockey was going through a review of its representative structure and regional-level hockey tournaments could be done away with.
“They would be replaced with what NZ Hockey has called ‘performance networks’ across the country,” King said.
“It’s my concern that this would limit the number of players getting exposed at the top level.
“Potentially it could disadvantage players in places like Gisborne.
“It would depend on how players are identified at a local level.”
There were no Gisborne players in the Central Region men’s or women’s teams at the Wellington tournament, though several made the trials.
The Central women (u18s) won the gold medal in Wellington, for the third year in a row.
Another Gisborne coach, Henry Mulligan, has previously been involved with the under-18 Central women’s team.
