Hockey coach stands down

Press, 27 December 1985, Page 26

Hockey coach stands down

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Ewan Holstein, who was appointed coach of the Selwyn senior hockey team only last season, has reluctantly decided to relinquish the position to concentrate on his new position as the Canterbury selector-coach.

Mr Holstein said he would have liked to continue as the Selwyn coach, and the club was keen to retain his services, but he did not believe that he could do justice to both the representative and Selwyn teams. He will also step down as coach of a Christchurch

Boys’ High School XI where he is a teacher. “I would rather do one thing well than stretch my resources as I have done in other years. It reached its height last year when Selwyn and the Boys’ High teams were playing on adjacent grounds at Porritt Park. I gave Selwyn its team talk and then raced to the next ground to talk to the boys before their game started. I did the same thing again at half-time.” Mr Holstein considered the possibility of having combined practices with the

Selwyn and Canterbury squads but dismissed the idea. “It worked some years ago when I was in the Canterbury squad and Cyril Walter was coaching Canterbury and University, but University also had a large number of players in the Canterbury squad. Selwyn is not in that position.” Mr Holstein said that when be accepted the position as Selwyn coach last season he had no idea that he would be coaching Canterbury just a year later. He was approached by

several people to make himself available as the Canterbury A selector-coach. His was the only nomination received when the appointment was made early this month. Mr Holstein is thankful that the Post Office Savings Bank Trophy tournament — for the top six teams from the national tournament in Christchurch in September — has been rescheduled from May to Queens Birthday Week-end. He will be able to use the first month of club games

to assess potential squad members.

Asked if there was likely to be any changes to the Canterbury squad which played in the national tournament in September, Mr Holstein chuckled and said: “No comment.”

He added though, that it was natural that coaches had different ideas on players. “Whether a player is in the New Zealand team or not is not that relevant. I will select what I believe is the best squad.”