Netball: Dearns to be next Pulse coach

Tanya Dearns.

Former Silver Fern Tanya Dearns will succeed the outgoing Robyn Broughton as head coach of the Central Pulse in the ANZ Championship and she has suggested the franchise is in for a change of attitude.

Dearns, who has spent more than 20 years coaching high performance netballers and is also an acclaimed sports administrator, will begin at the start of August.

She was the assistant coach of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic in 2013 and is currently general manager of the Bay Hawks National Basketball League franchise, picking up the 2014 Administrator of the Year award in her first year in the role.

Her netball coaching resume is includes work in Australia and the Northern Hemisphere, as well as significant head coach experience in the New Zealand domestic competition.

She has also worked as a TV commentator, motivational speaker, events manager and political advisor in roles which were all centred around elite sport.

As a player, she represented the Silver Ferns between 1990-93 and 1996-99, including the 1990 Commonwealth Games, during more than a decade of service to Wellington netball.

Dearns is aiming to have four training sessions across the week next year that includes the entire squad. This year the squad only trained three times per week and players were flying in from outside of Wellington. Dearns will also be looking to the central zone to provide some of the playing talent.

"Ideally, I would like to have an open trial to add to the core roster of eight or nine signed athletes, so we can see what players are around," Dearns said.

She believes her recent international experience will be invaluable in her new role.

"I've certainly not been in a netball wilderness, and have recently helped to prepare the Scottish national squad for their recent international games including the European Cup campaign and also undertaken high performance coaching in New Zealand and overseas.

"I want to embrace and listen to the zone - that's very important to me. Being visible and being engaged with our community keeps it real. We will need to focus on reducing the team's inherent fear of failure which I think has had some affect their performance over a number of years. The players need to believe that making a mistake does not mean they are going to lose. It's about "being in the now".

Pulse and Netball Central Zone chief executive Carolyn Young was delighted to have secured the services of a coach with such a wide range of experience and skills.

"The modern sporting world necessitates an understanding and appreciation of the whole sporting picture and Tanya's skillset is exactly what we are looking for," she said.

"Our objective is to win the ANZ Championship in 2018 and we will be giving Tanya latitude to build a winning team in that timeframe. Winning the Championship next year will obviously be on her wish list, however from an organisation perspective we know that it takes time to build success. We want to take what we have learnt over the last seven years and build a long-term high performance programme that will provide sustained success in the ANZ Championship."

Katrina Grant will return for a seventh season with the Pulse having signed for the 2016 ANZ Championship season.

"Although Robyn will be a hard act to follow, I'm really looking forward to working with Tanya next season. She has a great deal of experience as both player and a coach and I'm sure she will bring a new outlook to the team."