King reigns in South Africa 

Very few women have made their mark coaching at the highest level, but South Africa’s newly appointed coach Jenny King is looking forward to the challenge. Karien Jonckheere, sports writer for The Star newspaper in Johannesburg, finds out more about King’s hopes and ambitions. 

It's a man's world, they say. And it seems that even applies when it comes to women's hockey. Of the 10 women's teams who competed at last year's Olympic Games in Athens, only the South African side had a woman as coach.

While Ros Howell is no longer at the helm of the team, it's now another woman, Jenny King, who has stepped in to take her place and frankly, she can't understand why she's so outnumbered. 

"It surprises me that there aren't more women coaches at international level," King said. 

"I hope it's not a perception that women can't coach women, but I suppose coaching is quite a male-dominated past-time in general. Obviously I would like to see more women at this level because they are just as competent as men. It's just that maybe they don't realise it can actually be a career opportunity. 

"And I suppose men generally think they know more than women," she adds with a laugh. 

"It’s an interesting question,” Greg Clark, assistant South African men’s coach, said. 

“I guess it’s a bit of a vicious circle because in the past women haven’t really been given opportunities because they’re not proving themselves. At the same time, they can’t prove themselves if they’re not given the opportunities at that level.

“From a male perspective though, the men’s game is that much quicker and more ‘cutting edge’. A man who’s been at that level can maybe come into women’s hockey and implement that in a team. But there’s really no reason why there shouldn’t be more women coaches if they can produce the results. 

“It basically comes down to a respect thing. Whether it’s a man or a woman, if the coach can get the respect of the team, it makes their life so much easier and half the job is done.” 

King first became involved in the game at school and played while at Stellenbosch University. 

"I then went through to provincial ranks and that's when I started coaching at under 21 level,' the former Western Province striker said. 

Having made the decision to retire as a player King then progressed to coaching the national junior side. 

"I qualified as a teacher and I really enjoy working with people and eventually I just started enjoying the coaching side more than playing so I was ready to retire.” 

King is still the coach of the South African junior side also and will hold that position until the Junior World Cup in Chile in September after which she will be able to focus all her energy on the senior side. 

King didn’t always have her sights on the senior women’s job, saying that she didn’t set any goals in coaching. 

“As long as my players were still enjoying my coaching and I was enjoying coaching them, I was happy.

"Once you become the national coach, there's nowhere to go from there, especially in South Africa. It wasn't really an aim of mine. It kind of just happened."

As an assistant coach to Howell for four years, King already has a close relationship with the players, but had she had it her way, things might have transpired a little differently. 

"If I had chosen when to step in I would have said ideally after the next World Cup. However I guess after the Olympics is also a good time because there are new players coming in and we're getting a fresh start. So in hindsight I guess this was the best time after all. 

''Fortunately while in the position of assistant coach I tried to take in as much as possible. I know all the girls now and I think I have quite a lot of insight into what works for them and what doesn't," she added. 

With the South African side having had such a great build-up to the Olympics and then falling short once they got to Athens, King now faces the daunting task of rebuilding a team that has lost its pre-Games momentum. 

"'I think one of the most challenging things at the moment is to try and manage the junior players while being involved in the senior side at the same time. It's very tricky to get the balance right.” 

"One of my main goals is to get the coaching structures in women's hockey in this country sorted out because they are very poor at provincial level. 

"What you need is to get a network that can work with you and who will see coaching as a year-round job and not only start training their teams four or five weeks before an inter provincial tournament."

Along with the challenges, there are certain aspects of her new role that King is relishing.

"I'm looking forward to the Champions Challenge, just to see how we compete against teams who are all ranked higher than us. 

"'I really believe that we can do well there, and my aim is that by the World Cup, we'll have the team at number eight in the world. I think that is possible and if we can achieve that by the end of 2006, then position five or six at the next Olympics is not an unrealistic goal. 

"From there it will take a lot of changes in this country to get to the top four in the world. We need the players to have the luxury of being professional and not having to play and work full-time. 

"One of the big problems now is that a lot of the girls have started full-time jobs since the Olympics and it's difficult to fit in a full-time training schedule on top of that."

There are a host of challenges awaiting King. Then again, it's also always been said that women are better at multi-tasking. So here is King's chance to prove a point. 

''I'm looking forward to the challenge,''she reckoned. "And I'm confident I can do it."