Netball: Former England captain Murphy named University coach
Netball - 21/September/2007
Former England netball captain Olivia Murphy has been appointed as the new head coach for netball at Loughborough University.
Murphy, a Loughborough graduate, has been recruited as part of the University’s strategic objective to increase the number of full-time head coaches, particularly in Olympic sports as it prepares for London 2012, employed at Britain’s top sporting educational institution.
“I am really looking forward to working with the talented athletes that we have at Loughborough,” said Murphy. “I have been working with them already (as an assistant coach) but this will be a more hands-on day-to-day basis.
“From a personal point of view, moving to work at the University is also a great opportunity to interact and learn from a lot of other coaches who are working with elite athletes.”
Murphy, who graduated in 1997 with a degree in economics, played for England 95 times and captained the side from 2000 until her retirement after the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where England won the bronze medal. The 30-year-old also won bronze medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and the 1999 World Championships.
She continued to play for the University’s franchise, the Loughborough Lightning, in the Netball Super League after retiring from internationals and was also an assistant coach last season. She will continue in that role for the 2007-08 season, playing and acting as an assistant coach.
Her main role will be to establish a high performance centre for netball at the University, which will include implementing improved strength and conditioning programmes for all of Loughborough’s netball squads and instituting new coaching structures.
“A lot of other universities are putting money into netball and offering places to all of the young England players so we have to highlight that we have a similar, if not better, programme at Loughborough.
“What will make the programme successful is that each individual athlete improves throughout the programme.
“Of course we want to be winning Super League and we want to be winning the BUSA competitions, but if every single player improves and reaches as much of their potential as they can, then we would have done a good job.”
Murphy, who was training to be an accountant, will begin her new position on October 22.