Tuesday 25 April 2023

The EIHA reiterates its ambition to focus on the aim to Recruit-Train-Retain with the announcement of Davey Lawrence as the newly appointed Technical Director of the EIHA’s Netminder Development Programme.

On making the announcement for Lead of the Netminder Programme, the EIHA Director responsible for Coaching, Education and Elite Pathways, Gary Apsley said: “I am delighted at the appointment of Davey Lawrence as the Lead for Netminding in the EIHA Coach and Education Programme which he will undertake alongside his role as ENTP Head Goalie Coach. It is a fantastic selection for our netminder community; Davey is one of their own who has always demonstrated total commitment to the role and embodies the pillars of development in coaching that we are hoping to expand and pursue in our ambition of raising standards and performance.”

Lawrence is a product of the Sheffield junior programme and was considered to be one of the top prospects of his generation back in the early 2000s where he was part of the Sheffield Steelers organisation for many seasons. Retiring from the game in 2010, Lawrence had a few years away from the game returning to join the newly formed Leeds Knights where he became one of the club’s coaches inspiring the next generation of hockey players to follow in his footsteps.

Apsley added: “I’ve known of Davey Lawrence since his time at the Steelers. He was part of an incredibly talented buch of Sheffield kids who went on to achieve greatness as Sheffield and then GB players. In Sheffield those boys are household names and all were inspired by the great GB gold medal winning Coach Jon Rowbotham who managed to get the very best out of the players under his direction.

Lawrence was one such player and comes from the same stable as GB stalwart goalie, Ben Bowns. He has the knowledge, pedigree and importantly, credibility, to help drive the EIHA netminding programme forward once again. It’s a tremendous appointment for the EIHA.”

Lawrence has already assembled a steering group of talented netminding coaches who together have been acting as a goalie steering group. That arrangement will now be formalised under the EIHA’s new code for Sport Governance in line with the directives from Sport England and we shall be publishing details for the newly re-vamped programme over the coming days/weeks with a view to recommencing the “GK” series of goalie workshops, training courses and development events during the next few months.