Shelley Kitchen hits the Whangārei Squash Club court. Photo / Tania Whyte
Shelley Kitchen hits the Whangārei Squash Club court. Photo / Tania Whyte
Revered sporting figure Shelley Kitchen’s return to her Northland roots has created an excited racket as she takes the helm at the Whangārei Squash Club.
The Kaitāia-born and raised Commonwealth Games medal winner and four-time national squash champion signed on as the club’s manager, after she and her husband NeilRossin decided to leave Auckland in order to be closer to family.
Kitchen also sought a slower pace of life so that she could get back onto the court more and enjoy the game she is “truly passionate about” and that gave her ample opportunities throughout her playing career.
She said her manager role will allow her to be on the sideline of her daughter’s representative netball matches or in the audience at her other daughter’s dance performances, and being able to be present for all of her kids.
The Squash Hall of Fame inductee was still Squash New Zealand’s high-performance manager when the couple moved to Whangārei with their four kids in October, but wrapped up the role last Monday.
Squash New Zealand (SNZ) chief executive Martin Dowson praised Kitchen as “instrumental” in SNZ’s international success since she first became involved in its High Performance Programme in 2014.
“Shelley brought a huge amount of mana to the role and has done fantastic work, which has made a real difference to athletes and the sport. She leaves our high-performance programme in a very good place.”
And while Kitchen said she will look back fondly on her time at SNZ, she is eagerly looking forward to developing the game and its players in Northland.
“The biggest thing I’m hoping for is everyone that plays the game has a good experience,” she said.
Shelley Kitchen in action during her successful career.
But Kitchen also wanted to bring a touch of her childhood, growing up playing on the squash courts of Kaitāia in the 1980s and the connections formed there, to the Whangārei scene.
She has spent the year coaching both the Whangārei Girls’ High School and Whangārei Boys’ High School squash teams two afternoons a week. Her role as manager of the Whangārei Squash Club is an extension of her desire for Northland to continue to add to its impressive squash history.
“I was wanting to give back, I guess, and there is a lot of potential for squash in the region,” Kitchen said. “I see other sports promoting the game and a lot of the time squash is always missing.”
Her comment wasn’t a slight to those pouring efforts into growing the sport but instead, a challenge Kitchen wanted to be part of answering.
She already has one tournament under her belt as manager after the club hosted the Northland Open last weekend. Its success showed Kitchen’s yearning to make an immediate impact on the sport locally.
Plans are in the pipeline to hold adult beginner nights, as well as expose more schools to squash and the possibilities it affords.
Kitchen brings an impressive résumé to the role, given she won four successive New Zealand titles from 2005 to 08 and was nationally ranked from 1998 to 2009. She shrugged off retirement to play in the world teams championship in Palmerston North in 2010, going through the event unbeaten.
Internationally, Kitchen won a world doubles crown and a world mixed doubles silver medal. She beat world No 1 Nicol David at the 2006 Commonwealth Games to capture the women’s singles bronze medal. She also took home a silver medal from the same Games, after winning the women’s doubles with squash partner Tamsyn Leevey.
In the 2011 New Year Honours, Kitchen was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sport.
