Wilkins rises to new challenge with Tactix

Uprooting her life for the opportunity to coach elite level athletes, Donna Wilkins has hit the ground running since taking over as head coach of VIP Frames & Trusses Tactix for the 2025 season.

Growing up in Rangiora, Wilkins has relocated back to her roots for the next few months after heading to Invercargill in 1997 and forging a stellar career both domestically and for the Silver Ferns. She is a dual international having also captained the Tall Ferns.

The stars have aligned for Wilkins, who married and raised three children in rural Southland, but the teenagers now all attend boarding school in Christchurch and prompted by her daughter, she successfully applied for the vacant coaching role with the Tactix.

"I love working with the elite athletes and I think that’s why over the last three or four years I’ve been trying to be involved. It’s been quite hard with my kids, I guess, because I want to coach them and now with them all being in Christchurch, it was just a great opportunity to see if this is something I want to do,’’ she said.

"It’s not until you’re fully immersed in it whether you find out if it’s for you or not. Until you’ve actually got a head coach role you don’t know how you’re going to adapt and whether it’s going to fit.’’

One of a handful of new coaches this season, Wilkins is not unfamiliar with the Tactix environment, having been a specialist coach with the team for the past three years.

"From only coming in a handful of times as a specialist coach and into the environment as head coach, I knew there was going to be lot more of a workload with planning and everything else, so it’s been pretty full-on,’’ she said.

"It’s also pretty hard, like obviously, I’ve spent a lot of time in Southland and it’s going to be interesting to see the reception when we go down there but this is where I began my netball and it is quite cool what’s happened. I think knowing the girls as well and having worked with a majority of them means you’re not starting from scratch either, so it just fitted.’’

The Tactix have retained a solid core of six (Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Ellie Bird, Karin Burger, Jane Watson Paris Lokotui and Erikana Pedersen) while introducing four new faces, including impressive shooter Martina Salmon.

"Right from the get-go, I’ve been very impressed with how these girls have come together,’’ Wilkins said.

"From the first week, they’ve been amazing and they’ve all really fine-tuned what the expectations are off-court and on-court, and I’ve been really impressed with the ones that have come in.’’

With rule innovations being introduced this season, most notably the two-point shot, where double points will be on offer from range for the last five minutes of each quarter, there’s plenty of food for thought for players and coaches about the approach to this new dynamic.

"It will be interesting to see how the girls adapt and keeping them on the same page because I think it’s going to be more around strategy and thought process rather than just going all-out for the two-pointers,’’ Wilkins said.

"It will be great for the crowd and can go one of two ways. Teams can be up by a bit and it gives the opportunity for the other team to come back or it can blow games out. So, it will be interesting to see how every team uses it.’’

From a personal point, Wilkins is hoping to offer as much as she can to the athletes while pushing to get the best out of them and to enjoy it.

"As far as the team’s concerned, just getting the best out of the individuals so they can go and perform and prepare them the best I can, and make sure they feel comfortable coming to me, so we can work on their game together, and hopefully, we get a few from our team with higher honours,’’ she said.