As reported on the England Hockey website, Danny Kerry has been appointed as Head Coach for the England and Great Britain Women’s Hockey programme through to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016.
The decision came following an international search involving discussions with both domestic and overseas candidates. Kerry was previously Head Coach of the programme that culminated in the team’s first Olympic medal in 20 years at the London 2012 Games. He was appointed as interim Head Coach earlier this year following the departure of Jason Lee in June, and led the England Women’s team to a silver medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Kerry currently holds the position of Performance Director for England and Great Britain Hockey, and will continue to oversee the performance directorate while working as Head Coach.
Sally Munday, England Hockey Chief Executive said: “Recruiting in the middle of an Olympic cycle is notoriously challenging given that most coaches are in contracts with long notice periods. We have spoken and interviewed a number of coaches about this role but with the Olympic qualifying tournament just nine months away we do not feel we have time to wait and as such have decided to extend Danny’s interim position through to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016.
“Danny is an outstanding coach, has proven medal success at the Olympic Games and he knows what it will take to get the team on the podium in Rio. We have an excellent management team working with this talented group of committed athletes, and we are confident that under Danny’s leadership they can achieve medal success in Rio.
“Danny has been doing an excellent job as Performance Director since being appointed after London 2012 and we will be providing additional support to allow him to maintain the strategic leadership role in Performance. We will advertise the Head Coach position for the Tokyo cycle before the 2016 Rio Games, so Danny can return full time to his Performance Director position immediately, once a new coach is appointed.”
Danny Kerry said: “I’m highly motivated about the challenge ahead, and I believe that with our athletes, staff and programme, we can continue to challenge the best in the World. At the same time, I’m confident of the processes and structure that we’ve put around my role as Performance Director, that I will still be able to maintain the strategic oversight needed to give effective direction to performance hockey in Great Britain.
“I look forward to working with this talented group of players and staff, to push hard for further medals at major tournaments, secure qualification for the Rio Olympic Games and to perform as serious contenders in Rio. As part of that journey I also aim to leave the programme in a flourishing state for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle.”
The Great Britain women’s hockey squad returned to full time training following a short break after competing for their home nations at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Whilst the England team will compete in the Champions Trophy (top 8 teams in the World) in Argentina this November, the Great Britain team will have their next world ranking event at the World League Olympic qualifier in Spain in June 2015.
