Hockey: Abrasive coach lifts game to a higher plane

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Jan Borren is demanding and bloody-minded, uncompromising and sometimes rude. And that's just what his friends say.

But he has also been called unique and special, the man who has taken the New Zealand women's hockey team a leap closer to the top of the world.

Late on Monday night Borren briefly removed the mask he wears in the dugout and let loose a torrent of fury. A bizarre umpiring decision had just cost New Zealand a valuable semifinal victory over Spain in the final 15 seconds.

The morning after, the coach was apologetic for his outburst, but still sticking to his guns.

That is typical Borren, says New Zealand's assistant coach, Selwyn Maister. They have been friends for more than 30 years, and represented New Zealand at two Olympics together.

"He's not in this to make friends or be part of the Olympic experience. We came here to win," Maister said. "I get on well with Jan - but he's very single-minded.

"Some people call him uncompromising, but I don't think that's totally fair. In the sport these days you have to be bloody-minded to achieve things."

He has been known to argue the point with umpires at local games - New Zealand hockey has even received letters of complaint about his manner.

Those on the periphery of the team say the New Zealand women have come to respect Borren. But he has not always made it easy for himself.

His decision to change the captaincy just weeks before the Olympics could have split the team.

"Sometimes the girls need a rest from him," chuckles Ramesh Patel, executive director of New Zealand Hockey. "He's a hard taskmaster.

"They will never forget their first training session with him - they couldn't believe what they'd struck.

"Rather than a polite getting-to-know-you, he had them working so hard they were absolutely had-it. They all went home in pain, some of them injured. But he set the standard.

"He believes in a strong, tough training ethic. But when he asked the girls, that's exactly what they wanted."

When asked about his single-mindedness, Borren says: "I asked them what they wanted to achieve. They want to be the top in world hockey. My job is simply to help them achieve that."

Wednesday is a crunch day for the team, and the day Borren turns 53.

Of course he wants only one thing for this birthday. "It would be a nice present for us to go on to play on Friday," he says. Friday is gold day down at the turf.

Borren missed out on Olympic gold in his career. He went to the 1968 and 1972 Games, but retired from the sport to start an engineering business in Wellington and help raise his four children.

His brother, Tur, Maister and Patel all won gold in Montreal four years later.

Borren was born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the home of electrical giant Philips.

When he was 15, his father became manager of Philips New Zealand and moved the eight Borren children to settle in Upper Hutt.

In 1967 the young Borren went to Canterbury University to study engineering and it was there he met Maister and joined the same club.

As a player, Borren was a clever forward, who scored almost as many goals as he played tests.

"He had good stick skills and took on a huge workload," says Maister. "He was hugely determined and that side of his character still comes through today."

He took up coaching when his son's school team had no one to do it.

When the New Zealand job became vacant after the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Borren decided to have a go.

The selection panel came out of the interview room certain this man had the x-factor.

"He was the one who could make the difference," Patel said. "Sure, he's opinionated, but he strongly believes in what he wants.

"He has said a few hard words to umpires. We've got a few letters of complaint about him, so I've had to curb his behaviour a little bit.

"But generally he's very, very good. He's done something quite special here."

Patel says Borren has a sensitive side and cares about what happens to his team. He grappled with taking the captaincy off Anna Lawrence and replacing her with Kylie Foy five weeks before the team left for Sydney.

"He didn't want to do it - that's why he left it so late. He wanted to give Anna the opportunity to come right," Patel says.

Borren was criticised heavily for it, and then again when he said he did not want a captain at all, but officialdom forced him to change his thinking.

"The toughest part of this job has been to try and get them to be more independent on the hockey field - so they can make their own decisions and not rely on any one person," he says now. "I guess we're still working on that one."

On Wednesday afternoon New Zealand must beat Argentina to play-off for any coloured medal.

"Whatever happens, I think they have already been successful," Borren said. "This team has proved they can play with the top nations in the world - and that is success.

"They have shown a temperament where they are able to deal with the big occasions. It would be nice to think they will get a reward for all that."