A familiar face has stepped into the coaching seat for the Altona Gators for the Big V women’s division 1 season.
Gators coaching director Randy Shanklin will have a second stint coaching the club’s women’s side, having coached the youth league team in recent seasons.
He takes over from Cameron Wilkosz. who had to step down to work and family commitments just weeks out from the season.
Shanklin was in America when the news came through that Wilkosz was stepping away,
“Family comes first,” he said.
“The decision was more about whether Kate Coffey would be ready to step up for the youth league side.
“We could have appointed someone else to the women’s role, but we wanted to have some continuity.
“It’s been a seamless transition. Kate is able to handle the youth league team and did a lot of coaching last year, it was about managing her load with work and work around the club.”
The Gators, which finished runners-up in division 2 last season, earned promotion when another team withdrew.
Shanklin said the team was back where they belong.
“It’s really exciting for the club,” he said. “We wanted to get back to somewhere where we’d had some success before.
“Last time we lost a lot of older players and were playing young players who were not ready. It’s good to be back.”
Shanklin said there had been some changes to last season’s squad. He said they would have a core group of seven or eight players, with players from the youth league side stepping up to give more numbers.
He said there was plenty of depth in the side.
Jessica Rarity is back for another season in a big boost, while Kayla Salmons is back from college in America.
The Gators have lost Sharna Appleby, who is playing in Tasmania.
Shanklin said there had been a lot of hard work had been done since he arrived back from America.
Despite the short notice, Shanklin said they were still aiming high this season.
“The expectation is definitely finals,” he said. “It’s always finals.
“I’ve only missed one finals campaign since 2010 while I was in the youth league.
“Hopefully we can play in finals and move up to the state championship in the coming years.
“We want to be competitive and in the next year or two move up to state champ.”
