The University of Hertfordshire Performance Netball Programme is well established as one of the most successful Netball programmes in the University sector with multiple Southern Premiership League Titles and 4 consecutive BUCS National Championships wins with the latest in 2022 beating the University of Birmingham.
As part of the University’s ongoing commitment to elite netball and providing outstanding player focused pathways for performance athletes, the University are making some exciting changes and expanding its already successful coaching workforce.
Mel Mansfield, our hugely respected and successful Head Coach, will be taking up a position as Director of Netball, with responsibility for the overall development of our performance netball programme including the on-going coaching of the squads and the mentoring support of our coaching workforce.
As a result, we are delighted to announce and welcome Yasmin Hodge-England as our new 1st Team Player/Coach. Yas has a proven track in elite netball with 5 years Super League playing experience coupled with both University and High School Coaching experience, where the primary focus has been purely on elite and performance focused coaching programmes at a national level. This is a natural progression for Yas as she combines her postgraduate study, playing and coaching positions and we are extremely excited at what Yas will bring to the programme under the mentorship of our Director of Netball.
Yas: “When the opportunity arose to take on the position of Head Coach at Hertfordshire, I was so excited and eager to get started. The Netball programme has such a formidable reputation within the sector and when I saw the standard of the players and the programme, I knew it was a challenge I wanted to accept and can’t wait for the BUCS season to start”.
In addition to Yas, we are also delighted to have secured Jenni Monger as our new 2nd Team Head Coach.
Jenni is a Level 2 Netball Coach with experience coaching at Super League NPL, Regional and County level. Jenni has an excellent coaching background having worked with elite athletes at various levels and as part of her global Netball Coaching business. Working towards her Level 3 coaching qualification, Jenni will bring energy and a positive coaching philosophy to the squad and the programme and we are looking forward to the impact Jenni will have over the season.
Jenni: "I am incredibly excited to join the coaching team at the University of Herts and I am focused on contributing to the on-going success of the elite programme and the hugely impressive BUCS Netball history. I cannot wait to start working with the athletes in the performance environment to help improve their game as individuals and as a team and look forward to what we can achieve!”
We are delighted to welcome both Yas and Jenni to the programme who have both stepped seamlessly into their new roles through pre-season as we prepare for BUCS competition.
Thankfully, we have retained the services of our 3rd Team Head Coach Emma Catlin who continues to work so positively within the programme, and we are extremely excited to have such an experienced, committed, and talented team of coaches to lead our University Netball Programme.
Mel: "We have continued to recruit an exciting cohort of talented players for the coming season as we focus on another successful university campaign. A warm welcome to Yas and Jenni, and welcome back to Emma. I am very much enjoying this new phase of the programme where we are not only supporting the development of players to be the best they can be, but also we are committed to developing and supporting coaches into elite netball and performance programmes. There is a fresh feel to the club, and at UH Netball we continue to strive for excellence, with determination for continuous improvement of our perfoemance programme. We are confident the new coaches and new player additions will provide a very exciting and competitive environment, and we are looking forward to seeing the season unfold.