Coaches' Profiles

Te Aroha has over 18 years experience in Deputy Principal and Head of Physical Education & Sport roles in New Zealand.
Her coaching experience includes Assistant Coach of the Silver Ferns, Coach of the Cook Islands National Team at the 1999 Netball World Championships and she coached at two World Youth Championships with the New Zealand U21 Team, achieving a silver medal in 1996 and gold at the 2005. Te Aroha went on to coach the Mystics in the ANZ Championships before heading to the UK to coach age group, British University and Super league teams.

Previously Director of Netball for St Peter’s, she helped lead the St Peter’s premier girl’s netball team to win the New Zealand Secondary Schools title for the first time in 2019.

As Deputy Principal at Mt Albert Grammar School, Auckland for 13 years Te Aroha developed the netball academies in the junior school. She coached teams to sixteen UNISS titles and ten NZSS titles. In 2015 Te Aroha was awarded New Zealand Coach of the Year.

Her vision for St Peter’s sport is outlined below:
“The St Peter’s Sports Department are a group of highly motivated individuals with a strong collaborative process in place. They are very athlete driven, and foster a holistic approach to talent development, attainable through sport. Such skills as adaptability, flexibility and resilience are transferable to life and learning. High Performance Sport is achieving well, creating a performance culture for all - where everyone is valued.
This has always been paramount for me as a teacher and coach.
Going forward there are a few areas I would like to look at;
• Gaining the competitive edge in sport.
• Realising cross-code potential of our talent pool.
• Growing the next generation of Leaders.
• Development of fundamental skills and long-term sustainable participation in sport for all students.”

Ange leads the operational sporting events in her role as Assistant Director of Sport. She is passionate about delivering quality sporting opportunities that are accessible for all St Peter’s students, and providing positive pathways from participation to high performance level.
Ange played netball at regional level for Waikato before taking up coaching. She has over 25 years coaching experience that includes Waikato age-group and senior representative teams. She is part of the coaching team that helped qualify St Peter’s to the first ever NZSS Netball Championships. Ange has High Performance Sport New Zealand’s Performance Coach Advanced qualification. She has coaching experience through the Pathway to Podium programme for emerging athletes in netball and athletics. Ange has coached Athletics and Cross-Country athletes to NZ titles and NZ representative level, recently coaching athletes preparing for the World School Cross Country Championships. She has been appointed to the coaching/management team for NZSS Athletics and Cross- Country teams and led two St Peter’s Track and Field Tours to the USA.

Tori is a current High-Performance Athlete, who represents New Zealand in the Javelin, and holds Open Womens New Zealand Records. Tori has had success at many International competitions and NZ selections for the 2015 and 2017 World University Games.
Tori’s experience within the High-Performance Sport environment means she has been exposed to the tools and elements that contribute to being an elite athlete. Tori understands the importance of athlete development in not only a sport specific, physical capacity, but also an emotional, psychological, and spiritual capacity. With these experiences and knowledge, Tori aims to expose our sporting talent to some of the elements needed for holistic athlete development, and ensure they have the tools needed to reach the next level within their sporting disciplines.

Tori has a Bachelor in Physical Education majoring in Exercise Science and Professional Studies from Otago University and has recently obtained a Diploma in Raynor Massage.

Her role is mentoring and managing athlete development through
• Help with long term development planning and goal setting after assessment interviews.
• Muscular/Skeletal screening to identify any areas needing further development.
• Research NZ Performance Sport Pathways and performance criteria.
• Strength and conditioning programming & support. (2 supervised Gym sessions per week)
• Performance Psychology & Nutrition group sessions and follow up.
• Introductions to Drug Free Sport NZ
• Athlete Support System.
• Social Media and public speaking
• Leadership Workshops
• Physiotherapy coordination

Passionate about helping our youth to learn and grow their capabilities, as well as an all-round sportsman, Todd Barker is a welcome addition to Sport at St Peter’s in the role of Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Todd brings with him a wealth of experience, having worked as Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Waikato Rugby Union for the past 10 years. He has also worked extensively with secondary students, boys and girls, at school and regional level.

Lydia has been a part of the PEP programme as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the last two years. As a past regional representative athlete, across different sporting codes, Lydia understands the physical demands that come with being a growing teenage athlete. It was this that prompted her to pursue a career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach, completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Science and Human Performance and a Master’s in Youth Athlete Development. Her studies focused on providing physical support through movement awareness, skill acquisition and nutrition.
As a coach, her philosophy is centred around holistic athlete development. She understands that PEP athletes are students first and are required to perform in the classroom as well as in their competitions. In addition to this she acknowledges the demands outside of school, education and sport, and the importance of achieving a healthy balanced lifestyle.

Jess has experience as a high performing track athlete. She has represented Waikato Bay of Plenty and Whanganui in 4x400m and 4x100m relay teams, won as NZSS national 4x400m relay title, and obtained silver medals in the NZSS senior girls and senior women’s 400m.

Jess has a wealth of experience in sports management. She was operations manager for the New Zealand Secondary School Cross Country Team, Oceania Area Championships, Commonwealth Youth and World Junior Championships.

Her coaching role includes sprint and relay squads and she has had huge success in implementing current relay trends. St Peter’s teams have regularly medalled at Regional and NZSS events due to the innovative relay programme.
Jess values the importance of athletes being in a culture that inspires them to train like an elite athlete and learn skills and tools, no matter what the ability. She believes the skills learnt through sport are transferable to everyday life and create great habits.
Jess coaches the sprinters and relay teams at St Peter’s and being involved with the students, staff, parents is an absolute highlight of her work at St Peter’s. She enjoys seeing all athletes gaining the fundamental skills of track and field and then transferring these skills to other sporting codes such as rugby, netball, hockey and swimming.

Leanne was captain for the New Zealand Women’s basketball team at the Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) Olympic Games and has represented New Zealand in Touch Rugby. Leanne was Māori Sportswoman of the Year in 2003 and again in 2004, when she also received awards from Basketball NZ and Touch NZ. Leanne’s work in these two sports has been recognised with the Senior Māori Sportswoman award, presented to her at the Trillian Trust Māori Sports Awards for her outstanding contribution to Māori Sport.

Leanne is part of the NZ Olympic Women in Sports Leadership Programme and has Coached
Basketball at National level including: Assistant Coach NZ U18 women (2nd in Oceania, 5th in Asia cup), Head Coach of NZ senior women’s 3x3 – Gold at Asia cup in 2018 and Assistant Coach of NZ U18 3x3 world champs in 2017 (finishing 5th).

Leanne’s passion for sport has made a significant contribution to St Peter’s and the wider community. During her long career Leanne has mentored many young players. She has coached basketball and touch rugby teams at St Peter’s and at regional and national levels.

Brett is the St Peter's First XI Coach and runs the Junior Cricket Academy. He is also the Coach of Hamilton Men's B team, Senior Secondary School team, Network Coach within the Northern Districts Cricket pathways programme. and Head Coach of the Under 19 Northern Districts Women's team.

Prior to moving to St Peter's, he was player/coach with Cornwall cricket Club Premier Squads. Brett has played representative cricket for Bay of Plenty, Waikato Valley and Northern District teams and was awarded the Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship for cricket at Waikato University.

Owen has New Zealand Cricket’s prestigious level 3 coaching qualification. He has 25 years of professional cricket coaching experience at all levels, from beginners to international players.

Owen has held numerous coaching positions at regional and national level, ranging from Assistant positions on the New Zealand White Ferns team, to coaching the New Zealand Northern Districts team at U19, U17, and U15 level. Hence, through his career he has coached many former and current Black Caps and White Ferns.

Anna joined St Peter’s in 2020 as our road cycling coach.

She has a background in triathlon and represented New Zealand at two ITU Under 19 World Triathlon Grand Finals in 2015 and 2016.

Anna switched her focus to cycling and races at an elite level on both road and track and is currently an intern with the Cycling New Zealand Waikato/Bay of Plenty Hub Programme.

An Avantidrome accredited coach and qualified Cycling New Zealand Level 1 Sport Coach, Anna has experience working with students acquiring the skills and fitness to ride competently and safely whilst supporting them with their cycling goals.

Anna is studying at University of Waikato towards a Degree in Health, Sport and Human Performance Science.

Zac represented New Zealand for track cycling at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.

Before joining St Peter’s, Zac spent six years competing and racing overseas before embarking on a coaching career and has completed the Cycling New Zealand Level 1 Sport Coaching qualification specialising in track cycling.

Zac’s believes his experience within the High Performance sport environment is a great opportunity to encourage and support our students to reach their sporting goals whilst focusing on a safe and fun environment.

Off the bike, Zac is an extremely enthusiastic sports person either playing or watching and is currently studying for his commercial pilots licence.

Jessie is the current Junior Elite World BMX champion, has won multi-world BMX championships over the years and represented New Zealand at the Olympic Summer Youth Games held in Buenos Aires in 2018.

Riding bikes is Jessie’s passion – earning a spot at the Red Bull Pump Track World Championships in Austria and riding at Crankworx in the Air DH and Dual Slalom events.

Currently in the Cycling NZ BMX Hub, Jessie brings a wealth of cycling knowledge and experience to our mountain biking programme.

Peter has a range of knowledge in all aspects of the equestrian world. He has a commercial background and has worked for big companies in Singapore where he and his family lived for 19 years. Peter has a vision of what the equestrian world will be like in the future, and how we need to prepare our students for it.

Alannah has been coaching at St Peter's since 2013. She specializes in breaking and producing horses for the race track and the showjumping circuit and enjoys working with quirky horses.

She has both her A and H Pony Club Certificates and holds a National Certificate in Equine.

Alannah has competed to 1* eventing in the past but now focuses on show jumping. She has produced her horse Capbella from an unbroken two-year-old to a 1.40m show jumper, with the ambition of riding at Grand Prix and World Cup level.

Nicola is an alumni of St Peter's and is a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar at the University of Waikato, studying a Bachelor of Social Science. She competes successfully at Young Rider & Grand Prix, and has recently stepped up to World Cup level. She and her Dutch warmblood, Carlo, were the winners of both the FMG Young Rider class, and the Cambridge Cup Grand Prix at the Showjumping Waikato Show at Mystery Creek.

Nicola has also competed internationally for Singapore multiple times and most recently placed 1st and 3rd in classes at the CSIO-Y Beijing in 2018.

Nicola first started coaching at St Peter's as a Year 13 student in 2017.

Photo: Christine Cornege

Leanne has coached at St Peter’s since 2011 and has extensive experience in coaching children from pony club up to advanced level dressage. An advanced level dressage rider, Leanne has ridden horses since she was two years old and has won many Champions in Showing Classes and Round the Ring Jumping before starting her passion for Dressage. Leanne has competed to Level 7 Dressage (which is Prix St George and Inter I) on her own bred horse Glamour Star and still competes her mare Affaire D’Amour at Level 4.

She coached for Paerenga Pony Club for five years when it was at St Peter’s and also for Leamington Adult Riders for several years in dressage.

Leanne has also won a Horse of Year Title – Young Sporthorse of the Year. Leanne has bred numerous top quality dressage horses including the two she competes with now. She has been awarded the New Zealand Hanoverian Society Award for Exceptional Performance in Breeding.

Former international youth footballer and professional coach, Shane Knowles is the Director of Football at St Peter’s.

Amongst Shane’s notable achievements, he was twice awarded Auckland Football Coach of the Year, named Sport Waitakere Coach of the Year, has led teams to the finals in the Chatham Cup (the most prestigious New Zealand-wide club competition), and has helped produce youth international players through his development programmes.

Shane has been coaching men and women’s football for over 21 years. Prior to coming to St Peter’s, he was the Director of Football at Bay Olympic Football Club in Auckland.

At St Peter’s, Shane presides over the football programme as well the Junior Football Academy. He is also the coach of the 1st XI Boys’ team.

Simon has been a AAA class member of the New Zealand PGA for over 30 years. In his professional playing days Simon enjoyed a successful stint on the NZ ProAm circuit, including two consecutive NZ PGA National Club Professional titles. He spent two years as a full-time caddy on the European and Australasian tours and then 13 years as head professional at the prestigious Otago Golf Club in Dunedin.

Simon is a renowned technical and tactical coach. He was New Zealand assistant national coach from 2001 to 2004 and head coach of Southland Golf between 2002 and 2006. Simon has also coached NZ age-group teams in international competitions.

Simon coached the St Peter’s team that won the National Secondary School Championships in 2011 and 2015. He was involved in coaching two of our most successful golfers — Mahal Pearce who won the New Zealand Open Championship in 2003, and Matthew Perry who won the New Zealand Amateur Championship in 2011. Simon has been the head coach at our Golf Academy since it began in 2006. He brings vast experience and knowledge to our programme. His energy and passion for both the game and working with emerging golfers is an integral part of the continued success of our Golf Academy.

PGA — Professional Golfers’ Association
ProAm — a golf competition involving professional and amateur players

Reon is a AAA class member of the New Zealand PGA and a professional golf coach. He enjoyed a successful 13 year playing career, beginning as an amateur in New Zealand before playing professionally on the Australiasian tour. Reon also has extensive experience as a New Zealand representative.

Reon’s professional coaching career began in 2004 at Lakes Resort Golf and Country Club in Pauanui. In 2009 he spent a year in China as the head coach at the New Zealand China Golf Academy, setting up its operations and programmes. Reon has also been a New Zealand Golf development coach, and has been a New Zealand Golf teams performance manager since 2011. He has been a coach at St Peter’s Golf Academy since 2007.

PGA — Professional Golfers’ Association

Chris is Head of Physical Education and Health, Boys 1st XI Hockey coach and runs the Junior Hockey Academy.

Prior to moving to St Peter's, he coached the St Kentigern College 1st XI team to multiple winning titles.

As a player, Chris represented Auckland and Central in the National Hockey League and a squad member of the NZ Under 21 World Cup team.

Transferring his passion through to coaching, his ethos and purpose for each team member is to grow as individuals whilst making effective and valuable contributions to growing a successful team culture.

After beginning rowing at St Peter’s, Janey went on to win five New Zealand National Titles as a rower, including the Women’s Premier Eight. She represented New Zealand on the 1995 Under-22 team.

Janey has over 20 years of coaching experience in New Zealand, the USA, and Canada, at School, University, Club, and International Level. National team crews which Janey has coached include the Canadian Junior Women’s Eight in 2000, New Zealand University Women’s Four in 2002, Junior Women’s Four in 2007 and 2011, Junior Women’s Quad in 2010, Under-23 Women’s Four in 2008, and the Under-21 Youth Cup team in 2006 and 2009. Janey was awarded the Bill Eaddy Cup for Best Coach of Junior crews at Maadi in 2012 after St Peter’s won the Star Trophy for the first time. Janey is a selector for the NZ Junior team since 2014, and team manager in 2016 and 2017. In 2019 Janey added NZ U23 selector to her roles and is also currently the President of the NZ Secondary School Rowing Association.

Megan learnt to row at St Peter’s, winning Maadi medals in her time at school. She studied a Bachelor of Media Arts at Wintec whilst coaching the U15 and U16 Boys at St Peter’s. Megan coached for 7 years in the UK winning National medals and coaching athletes onto National teams. With a passion for sculling Megan returned to St Peter’s in 2018 to lead the boys' programme. Megan was selected to coach the North Island U18 Boys sculling team in 2019 and continues to aspire to National level coaching. Megan is currently studying towards a bachelors degree in Health, Sport and Human Performance at the University of Waikato.

In Norm’s 29-year coaching career he has led 22 crews to Premier Titles at the New Zealand National Championships, and over 30 crews to New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Titles.

Norm is enthusiastic about helping young people reach their potential. Norm has coached for New Zealand, and his international results include a bronze with NZ Junior Worlds Men’s Single in 1994, silver with the NZ Women’s Four at the 1995 & 1996 Nations Cup (now U23 World Championships), and a bronze with NZ Men’s Single in 1997. Norm coached the Adaptive Men’s Single to place 7th in the world at the London 2012 Paralympics. In 2017 Norm won Coach of the Year at the Waipa District Sports Awards and in 2018 he won the Bill Eaddy Cup for Best Coach of Junior crews at Maadi.

Carl joined St Peter’s in 2020 as our Director of Rugby and teaches in our PE and Health Department.
He has coached across all levels of secondary school rugby and completed the World Rugby Level 1 coaching qualification.
Carl’s personal sporting background has seen him play 99 premier grade games for Suburbs Rugby Football Club in Auckland, 60 as captain.
A career highlight was captaining his side to win the Gallaher Shield (Auckland Championship) in 2016. He was a member of the wider Auckland Mitre 10 team and Bay of Plenty Steamers Development squad and a current player.
Before departing to play professional rugby in Italy, Carl was Director of Rugby at Mount Albert Grammar School for two years.
Carl’s expertise and passion for rugby is inspiring for the development of St Peter’s players and to help provide pathways for our students post school.
Currently he assists our head coach, Will Helu with the St Peter’s 1st XV.

In 2017 Will retired from professional rugby after spending the best part of 10 years playing in the European and UK leagues with clubs such as London Wasps and Edinburgh Rugby. Will has also clocked up 24 International Caps for Tonga including two World Cups in 2011 and 2015.

Will brings all his experience, knowledge and forward thinking to this position as Head Coach. He wants to grow the game at St Peter's and work closely with our coaches who are working at our younger age groups to pass it onto the next generation of student athletes coming through.

He also believes in creating an environment that allows student athletes the opportunity to shape the best version of themselves both on and off the field. Proverbs 27:17 “ Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another“.

Sean has recently retired from playing professional rugby. In New Zealand he played for Waikato, Chiefs and the New Zealand Maaori team. Overseas he played for Bristol and Leeds in English Premiership Rugby and the Heineken Cup (now the European Rugby Champions Cup).

Sean has been coaching St Peter’s 1st XV since 2014. He has also coached premier club team Fraser Tech and has worked as a resource coach for the Waikato Mitre10 Cup team.

Ben is responsible for everything aquatics at St Peter’s.

Ben has over 14 years’ experience within the sports and recreation industry, leading organisations of all levels from leisure to high performance, in NZ and overseas.

Ben is the founder of the award-winning St Cuthbert’s Swim School, where he spent 6 successful years, winning NZ’s Most Outstanding Swim School in 2017 and 2018.

Prior to that Ben was a board member of the Israel Swimming & Water Polo Association and the Director of a top Swimming & Water Polo club in Israel.

His experience in New Zealand also includes the management of aquatic facilities and swim schools in Wellington.

Ben is passionate about staff and business development, about creating high performing teams, and delivering a world class facilities and services.

Ben is excited to lead St Peter’s Aquatics into the new decade with a world class swim club, a world class swim school and world class aquatic facilities and programmes.

Ally represented New Zealand at two Olympic Games — Atlanta in 1996 and Athens in 2004. Ally won bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006. Over her 13 year international career she competed for New Zealand at five FINA World Championships. Ally was ten-time national 100m freestyle open champion and held the New Zealand record for that event and various others over 50m, 100m and 200m distances for long periods during her career. In 2008 Ally was awarded a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to swimming.

Before joining St Peter’s, Ally spent four years managing the testing programme for Drug Free Sport New Zealand which oversees many of New Zealand’s top teams and sportspeople, ensuring New Zealand has positive advocates and role models on the global stage.

FINA — Fédération Internationale de Natation or International Swimming Federation

Rick has been coaching for 13 years and has seen success at programmes across the globe. Originally starting out as a national level swimmer, Rick progressed into coaching at the age of 19 as the Assistant Performance Coach at Gallica in the North of England. During this time he assisted the senior squad with some of the best coaches and swimmers in the UK including Dan Sliwinski (former British Record holder for the 100 Breast) and World Champs/Commonwealth Games swimmers Rob Bale, Josh Walsh and Steph Slater. Rick was also Head Coach of Blackburn (UK) at the age 19 in a joint role with Gallica.

Rick then moved to Dubai as Assistant Head Coach at Hamilton Aquatics. During the 5 years in Dubai coached numerous swimmers to national level competitions and medals in UK, Australia, Argentina, France, Czech Republic, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Malta, and the UAE. In 2014 Rick and his swimmers were part of the team that won the British National Medal table at the Summer National Championships. During his time in Dubai, Rick managed a team of coaches and helped the club grow from just 200 squad swimmers to over 650.

In 2015 Rick moved back to the UK to become Head Coach and later Director of Swimming at Hackney Aquatics Club in London. Created a culture of performance, success and most importantly enjoyment of the sport with strong core values. Over the past 5 years, Hackney Aquatics has become one of the fastest growing (from 150 to 450 swimmers) and most forward-thinking clubs in London. It was awarded London Swimming Club of the Year in 2018 and has seen year on year success at regional and national level including winning 14 medals at the last British and English Summer National Championships in 2019.
Rick holds a First Class Honors Degree in Sports Coaching and ASA Level 3 coaching qualification. He has recently been part of the Swim England Pathway Programme (a 14 month development programme for just 18 selected coaches in the UK) as well as numerous Swim England national programmes. He was also selected as the Head Coach for the County (Middlesex) and London Region.

Rick’s coaching pedagogy has grown from working across the world and involves developing technically efficient and skilful swimmers, creating a positive, hardworking team culture and instilling core values such as leadership, motivation, discipline and self-awareness.