Sports

Severn Stars Head Coach looking for local talent to push team

Samantha Bird will take charge of the Severn Stars for the 2018 season. Bird, who was assistant head coach in the Stars’ first season in the Vitality Netball Super League, has assumed control following the departure of head coach Mo’oina Gerrard. Despite the change, Bird seems prepared and confident for the teams’ chances going into the club’s second season.

She said: “The club have been very supportive.”

“I enjoy being head coach, I’ve got a good team around me so although the buck stops with me I quite enjoy that pressure really.”

Bird, who had a career as a Lawyer before moving into Netball coaching, feels she has received the best support during the transition from assistant to head as well as the resources to craft a squad to improve on the eighth place finish last year.

She said: “I was looking really to see where the gaps were in our squad and then recruit for those gaps.”

“The way we’ve constructed it is to have two players at least to compete for every place on the court.”

“For every goal attack I’ve got one, possibly two waiting in the wings challenging that player all the time.”

“I feel we’ve got that through the whole court and I’m hoping that just raise the level of competition output when it comes to the season.”

The squad created, Bird believes, is a good blend of experience and talent.

“We kept a number of players in the squad, a core group of players and we’ve added to that in terms of strengths. We’ve got some young ones and some really experienced ones and they’re working really well together.”

There are a number of international players such as Ellie Cardwell and Jodie Gibson for England in addition to the two South African imports, Maryka Holtzhausen and Phumza Maweni. However, Bird is adamant that the club has the right ambitions for local development.

She said: “It’s really important, the whole point of this franchise in this area is to develop netball going forward.”

“What we need is our younger players really pushing for places to compete because at the moment in the senior squad I’m having to recruit nationally and it would be ideal to start drawing players more local.”

“In my senior squad I’ve got players from Manchester, Stoke, Bath, London, all over the place so the idea of this franchise is to develop a bit more in this area as well who are at Gloucestershire university and Worcestershire university.”

The Stars have played five pre-season matches so far as the countdown until the season’s first game edges ever closer. It hasn’t been a perfect pre-season with two losses in the most recent trip tournament but Bird will be hoping that here squad can compete higher up the table this season. They will travel to Manchester to take on the Thunder on the 10th of February to tip off this campaign.