Life Membership: Ian Hatfield
Published Thu 15 Oct 2020
15 October 2020
South Coast’s Ian Hatfield has had an enormous influence on the sport in NSW, as a personal, team coach and in team management.
A coach for over 40 years, in 1996 it became his fulltime commitment upon retirement from work. From the ‘90s Hatfield launched into State team management with Athletics NSW. During this decade NSW teams ranged up to 800, travelling across the nation to junior, youth and schools Championships. Hatfield took on the challenging role in team management, often the team leader. They were rewarding times, being able to connect with the next generation of the sport and having an influence on their development. His team management skills were recognised with national team honours. Over the next decades Hatfield extended his involvement into Athletics NSW and NSWIS development programs, including the Emerging Athlete Program (EAP) and Target Talented Program (TTP). In addition, his involvement reached many other key development grounds of the sport, coaching at Little Athletics national camps and in schools.
Ian Hatfield has been influential in his local area, as the first president of the Albion Park Little Athletics Centre. From that centre have grown many talented athletes and it was marked by a recent achievement when two ex-members of the club, Ryan Gregson and Jessica Hull, simultaneously held the Australian 1500m records. Gregson, who Hatfield started coaching at six, achieved that in 2010, shortly after turning 20.
Ian’s personal squad has included a who’s who of south coach distance talent, many who have reached national and international success.
During the summer of 2006/07, the leading youth middle-distance runner in Australia was Sally Fitzgibbons. Set to represent Australia at the World Youth Championships, the talented all-round sports person also had football and surfing on her radar. 15-years on she is on target to make her debut at the Tokyo Olympics in surfing. Three-time Olympic hockey player and cousin of Ryan Gregson, Casey Eastham refined her speed and endurance under Ian’s guidance. It has been a bit of a stop-start career for Chloe Tighe, but at 30 she is currently the national 1500m champion and remains on track to represent Australia as a senior athlete. Others have included international triathlete Grace Musgrove and Irish international athlete Kevin Batt.
For his extensive service to state team management, development programs, administration and coaching in NSW, Ian Hatfield is awarded life membership of Athletics NSW.
David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Ian Hatfield (courtesy of David Tarbotton)
