New coach plans to repay debt

Whangarei's Mike Delaney is looking forward to giving his all to Northland hockey, after being named the men's coach for the National Hockey League 2010 season.
"I'm stoked and it's great to be able to give something back after they helped me throughout my hockey career," the 20-year-old said.
Delaney played age group hockey for Northland and made his debut for Northland Men's NHL side in 2004. He went on to play twenty-five games for his region before moving to North Harbour to start a degree in Sport and Recreation at AUT.
However, the promising hockey talent's playing career was tragically cut short two years ago when Delaney broke his neck in a tragic swimming accident ahead of a planned trip overseas with the Junior Black Sticks.
Initially, Delaney was totally paralysed down his right side, but after extensive physio, operations and most recently a second round of stem cell treatment in Germany last December, he gained back some of his mobility and had been hitting the hockey ball around over the summer, and had gradually noticed improvements, he said.
His new coaching appointment was a way to keep him involved in the game he loved, but it also tied in nicely with his studies.
"I'm in my third and final year now and coaching will cut into my university time a bit, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. My degree looks at conditioning and training so that will be beneficial for coaching Northland," he said.
Last year, Northland struggled to find a men's coach, which Delaney said resulted in players not wanting to commit and losing enthusiasm to prepare and play at the week-long NHL tournament. Finally Northland hockey stalwart Vicky Gribble put her hand up to take the men. Delaney assisted her. The pair saw the underrated team to seventh place in the highly-competitive contest. Delaney believes the side can do better this year.
He said: "Now the players know they have a coach early on in the season, I think they will be more keen to play this year. With better preparation, we would look to achieve a higher placing - realistically in the top five. But ultimately we would be building for the 2011 competition, developing the players we have got."
Most of last year's Northland team looked likely to return to trial for the 2010 team to play at September's NHL.
"Club hockey starts next month, and when that's under way we will put together a development clinic where we can look at the players. I will also be looking for up to six import players to play for Northland but we can't approach them until their associations release them, and often that isn't until the last minute. We will try to get a few pre-season matches up here before naming the final team about two weeks before the tournament, starting September
11."
Delaney will have Gribble on board as assistant coach.