The Upper North Island Secondary School netball championships have attracted some of the game's stars to the Whangarei this week but the most recognisable face at the Kensington Park courts yesterday was former Silver Ferns coach Yvonne Willering. Plenty of interest surrounds the no-nonsense coach's future as she awaits a decisionfrom the newly formed Auckland-Waitakere and Netball North franchise board as to whether she will coach the team in next year's inaugural Tasman Cup competition. Willering is a fan of the professional league but said competitions such as the National Provincial Competition and UNISS had an equally important role to play in the future of the sport in New Zealand. "Tasman Cup's a tremendous concept and it'll be great for the elite players but, having said that, we've still got to look after the players on the level beneath them as well. "It's all about having your top flight covered but it's also about providing pathways for the players at the base to get there and that's why this sort of competition is so important," she said. Willering said the UNISS tournament and the other regional secondary school competitions acted as a fertile ground for new talent and offered coaches an opportunity to see up-and-coming players who were ready to take the next step up into provincial netball. "We've got to look after netball within New Zealand at its many different levels," she said. Asked what she thought her chances were in being appointed to the new post, a good-natured "we're not going there" was the answer. The Otago-Southland franchise has already appointed Robyn Broughton, while Helen Mahon-Stroud will coach Canterbury but the decision on the North's coach is still as long as a week away. "Everything is still in its beginning phases, and they're still formulating boards and getting structures in place and we've all just got to go with the flow with regards to that at the moment," Willering said.
