AKH Farewells Joe Hanks for the time being

Joe Hanks, our Coach and Player Capability Manager, has decided after enduring four lockdowns in the last two years to head back to his home in the Hawkes Bay with his partner Kezia to live and work for the foreseeable future.

During his tenure at Auckland Hockey Joe was very successful implementing new programmes and coaching our athletes and he will be missed by all he encountered.

CEO Manoj said “Joe has been a stellar employee with an exemplary work ethic and manner. In his time with us he has grown the RPC, School of Hockey and School Holiday Programmes to a point where they are fully subscribed as well as introducing new initiatives like the U23 Forgesson-Archibald Shield, expanded Rep opportunities at the U14 and U16 levels as well as project managing the successful 9s Festival for our Year 7-8 club players.

On top of this and outside of his working life with us he managed to be selected for the wider FIH Pro-League squad in 2019 and play international friendlies for Auckland v Canada, Spain, and the Netherlands. His contribution to his beloved Roskill Eden Hockey club has been immense and I know appreciated by their members. As Captain of the Men’s Premier Team, he won 4 Auckland Championships and 3 Intercity titles as well as successfully coaching the Women’s Premier team from last place in the Intercity Competition in 2018 to runners up in 2019. On top of this he made the Challenge Shield Final as part of the successful Auckland men’s team in the last year of the NHL and was named Auckland Player of the Year in 2019.

Joe is an understated and humble person and was selfless during the covid crisis in 2020, stepping down from a full-time role to attend Teacher’s Training College, and thus helping AKH to successfully navigate the crisis. Joe leaves with our best wishes and support for the next chapter he chooses whether that be in education, sport or on the family farm in the Hawkes Bay.

We do look forward to seeing him back and project managing the 9s festivals and U23 Sky Next YouTube event in 2022. We will miss him from our small staff team. His dedication, loyalty, work ethic and selflessness have been second to none.”

“After 6 years in Auckland and 3 memorable years at Auckland Hockey, I am sad to leave, but at the same time I am excited to be taking the next step in my life by moving back to Hawkes Bay. I have enjoyed getting to know the Auckland Hockey community and feel a close attachment to all those who I have encountered across my time here. To the Board, the staff members, and the Auckland Hockey community, thank you for making my time a very enjoyable one. A big thank you must go to Manoj for all the trust and confidence you had in me. I look forward to watching Auckland continue to grow from afar. I am sure I will see a lot of the community at Hockey events soon.”