A myriad of cricket experience and two current Bay of Plenty representative players, who have added coaching to their repertoire, bookend the Bay of Plenty age group cricket coaches appointed for the 2013/14 season.

In tandem with the success of the BOPCA player pathway, a similar coach's path has been established by Bay of Plenty Cricket.

File photo.

No better example of the coaching pathway put in place is the success experienced by the current Bay of Plenty senior men's coach.

Last season Ben Williams took the Bay representatives to victory in the ND Fergus Hickey Rosebowl and Brian Dunning (one day) competition and won and defended the Hawke Cup three times.

Since first mentoring the Bay of Plenty Primary team in 2004, Williams has coached Bay of Plenty and ND youth teams and in 2012 took his ND side to victory in the North Island U16 championship, posting an undefeated record.

BOP Coastland Senior Secondary Coach Pete Swan will be chasing back to back titles at the ND tournament to be held in Gisborne in December.

Last year Swan coached team defeated ND age group heavyweight Hamilton, in a thrilling two day final to annex the ND silverware.

New BOP Lakeland Senior Secondary coach Mark Crawford has earned his new stripes, courtesy of successful campaigns with the Bay Primary and Junior Secondary teams, in recent seasons.

While BOP Lakeland Junior Secondary Coach Mitch Farnell is making his Bay of Plenty coaching debut, he is highly experienced in the realms of pressure cricket.

Earlier this year, Farnell coached the Cook Islands team that played in the ICC Asia/Pacific World Cup qualifying tournament in Auckland. BOP Coastland Junior Secondary mentor Peter Drysdale, is again combining playing duties for the Bays first eleven, with coaching the Bay age group side for the second successive year.

Freshly appointed BOP Coastland Primary Coach Tim Clarke is another to mix coaching with playing duties. Clarke, who is the incumbent Bay of Plenty wicket keeper will take his first step on the BOPCA coaching pathway, in round one of the ND tournament on November 24, 2013.

At the opposite end of the coaching spectrum is the BOP Lakeland coach Dave Richardson. The Rotorua CA Development Manager has had a wealth of playing and coaching experience and holds both Australian and New Zealand Cricket level three coaching certification.

Another to have participated in the ICC Asia/Pacific World Cup qualifying cricket experience is the BOPCA Secondary Schoolgirls coach Simon Turnbull, who played for Indonesia some season ago. Turnbull has coached the Katikati College primary team to victory in the Bay of Plenty division of the NZ Shield this year.

BOPCA Age Group Coaches 2013/14

Senior Secondary

BOP Coast land: Pete Swan BOP Lakeland: Mark Crawford

Junior Secondary

BOP Coast land: Peter Drysdale BOP Lakeland: Mitch Farnell

Primary

BOP Coast land: Tim Clarke BOP Lakeland: Dave Richardson

BOP Secondary Schoolgirls: Simon Turnbull