Burnside Heights has appointed Michael Davis as its seniors women’s coach.
Davis is no stranger to the Bears having been the club’s inaugural under 18’s boys coach back in 2014. He has coached previously at both junior and senior levels and more recently was the under 18’s girl’s coach at Taylors Lakes.
Coaching again wasn’t on Davis’ mind, however the lure of coaching his twin daughters got him back involved at the club.
“They asked me to put my hand up… it wasn’t on the horizon that I’d ever do it again, but when your kid asks you to do something, you have to do it,” Davis said.
“I coached my boy so I have to do the right thing by the girls.”
The Bears had a great Essendon District Football League division 1 home and away season this year, finishing in second position, losing just three games.
However, all of their good work fell away in finals, going out in straight sets to Greenvale and the eventual premiers Essendon Doutta Stars.
“It’s exciting to see where we can go together,” Davis said.
“By adding a game style or a game plan into their general ability.
“There’s a good strong core of footballers there, it’s just a matter of working with the lesser lights and getting them up to speed to take the pressure off the better football players.”
One of the best players in the team and competition, is midfielder Krissy Trang who won her second league best and fairest this season. She also won the award in the premier division in 2019 and she was runners up last season.
“Most of the squad at this stage is returning,” Davis said.
“Our plan is to see where we set up and make finals and then after that, we’ll see what happens.
“There are other clubs fielding teams for the first time this year, so there’ll be more challenges and you don’t know where these players have come from.
“But we’re talking to a few girls that I’ve coached in the past and I know, and we’ve had a couple of people reach out that want to join the Bears.
“There’s probably four [women] that I’m aware of at this point in time, but it’s still early, we’re still four weeks away from preseason starting.”
Former coach Jeff Stevens stepped down from the role after having five seasons at the helm of the Bear’s women’s program.
Harper Sercombe
