Resignation of athletics coach stuns meeting

Press, 31 October 1986, Page 36

Resignation of athletics coach stuns meeting

Special correspondent Wellington The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association’s national director of coaching, Keith Roberts, dropped a bombshell yesterday at the association’s annual meeting when he announced his resigna-

tion.

Mr Roberts, who was reappointed to the position for a three-year term only last month, shocked everyone with his resignation. Mr Roberts took over the position vacated by Dragan Ivanov 18 months ago and had appeared elated at receiving a vote of confidence with his reappointment. Yesterday, however, Mr Roberts, aged 34, said he had decided that his wife and

two children came before all other considerations. He said the director’s position entailed too much travelling and week-end commitments. Mr Roberts, who was a secondary school physical education teacher at Te Kuiti in the Waikato, plans to resume his teaching career. The association’s publicity officer, Mr Derek Froude, said that Mr Roberts’ resignation was a blow. "Keith added a new

direction in coaching. He was extremely popular and had an ability to relate to people at all levels of the sport. “The coaching committee has no plans to rush headlong into replacing Keith. They will be looking for feedback from New Zealand coaches to decide what direction coaching should take. Perhaps a regional set-up with less travel involved could be an option.”

At a special general meeting held before the annual meeting it was decided to adopt a 12-mem-ber board to replace the administration management committee. The board will be elected from three regions — northern (Northland, Auckland, and Waikato), central, and South Island. Each region will provide four representatives to the board which will be elected today.

There will also be an independent chairman and treasurer. This system was proposed by the West Coast-North Island centre.

The new structure means that the Welling-ton-dominated management committee will be decentralised giving more flexibility to nominate people outside Wellington who are capable administrators.

The main feature of the group discussions was the call for the reduction of the national elite squad in light of the limited funding available. At present there is a squad of 27 which .does not have a sponsor, and one of the ways of making the squad more marketable is to select a top level squad. One criteria could be a world ranking in the top 50 which on present terms would reduce the squad to 11.