England Netball is delighted to announce that Sam Bird and Emily Perry have been appointed as coaches for the 2018/19 international season (August – January) to continue the development of the high performance programme.
Sam Bird will take up the role of Futures Head Coach, with Emily Perry working alongside her as Futures Assistant Coach.
Sam played for England at U16, U18, U21 and senior levels before injury forced her into early retirement.
Since then she has dedicated her time and energy to giving back to the sport and has held a number of high-profile roles.
Sam brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position, having previously worked with the performance team as a Technical Coach and England A coach.
She led the U17s to the Netball Europe title in 2016 and, most recently, she acted as England Futures Assistant Coach for a trio of behind-closed-doors fixtures during the Vitality Netball International Series, as part of the Netball Quad Series in January 2018.
She has been a National Selector since 2012 and is currently Severn Stars Head Coach.
Emily has a considerable array of prior coaching experience and is passionate about investing in the development of the athletes.
She has previously worked with the performance team as a Performance Pathway Coach and Intensive Netball Training Centre coach.
Emily led the England U21s to a third place finish at the Netball World Youth Cup in 2017 – the best finish by an England team in this tournament since 2005.
Since then she has coached the Futures/England A and was Assistant Coach as the England Roses triumphed at both Netball Europe and Fast5.
She is currently Pathway Head Coach at Loughborough Lightning.
England Netball is excited to welcome Sam and Emily on board for the 2018/19 international season and look forward to working with them.
