IHA Appoint Denis Pritchard as Interim Coach for Irish Women

The Irish Hockey Association have today announced Denis Pritchard as the interim National Women's Hockey Coach an appointment which has been decided upon by the High Performance Working Group and formally approved by the Board.

Denis, an FIH Coach, has worked as Assistant Coach to the team for the last five years will step into the role with immediate effect until the end of the Champions Challenge I in early October.

Denis comes into the role with a wealth of experience, previously working successfully as Senior Munster Coach along with a successful stint as Cork C of I in which he won the All Ireland Club Championships in 2007. Denis also worked as Assistant Coach to the National Men's team in 2005 & 2006. "Denis was the natural choice for this position given the time he has spent with the squad over the past few years. He is best placed to further develop the technical development and style of play that saw the team produce a great run of results in the lead up and to the final of the Olympic Qualifier. Having worked as the assistant coach over the past five years he has detailed knowledge of the opponents the team will face, with out much preparation to their forthcoming competitions"

Denis is keen to continue to build upon the progress already made by the team commenting ''The summer series of games gives us another opportunity to compete against some of the world's top teams. We must build on the hard work that has been done and progress the squad towards our goal of world tournament qualification. I am honoured to be asked to lead on an interim basis; working in this environment is a great challenge and working with high-performance athletes is a huge privilege. The journey continues unabated.''

Regarding other roles within the management team an interim assistant coach will be appointed over the forthcoming weeks. Current Manager Sally Ann Fanagan will stay on in her role until June whilst a long term replacement is appointed and Karen Coughlan steps down as Physio after many years of excellent service.

The full time Coaching position will be advertised in late July with a view to appointment in mid October.