Donald Francis Tricker is a former player and coach of the New Zealand national softball team (Black Sox) and senior advisor of high performance coaching at the New Zealand Academy of Sport.

Family background

Tricker's grandfather was one of the country's leading softball umpires and played a key role in introducing the game to the Wellington region.

Sporting career

Player

Tricker played softball for

Porirua Porirua, () a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Poriru ...

until he was 22 then moved to Poneke Kilbirnie, claiming regional and national titles with both clubs, and played for the Black Sox on and off between 1986 and 1991.

Coach

Tricker began his softball coaching career at Poneke Kilbirnie in 1996, while he was still playing, and was named Black Sock coach two years later. He coached the team to two world championship wins in 2000 and three consecutive world titles. He retired as national coach in 2004, being replaced by Eddie Kohlhase. In 2002, after six years in the

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

sector, Tricker was appointed as senior advisor of high performance coaching at the New Zealand Academy of Sport, a unit of

Sport and Recreation New Zealand Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) ( Māori: ''Ihi Aotearoa'') is a New Zealand Crown entity responsible for governing sport and recreation in New Zealand. Their subsidiary High Performance Sport New Zealand deals with elite athletes. Legislat ...

. Tricker and

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

lawyer Mike Heron prepared a report into the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

early

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

exit. In 2010 the

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the Sports governing body, governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it b ...

has appointed Tricker as the High Performance Manager.

Honours and awards

Tricker was named coach of the year at the 2000

Halberg Awards The Halberg Awards are a set of awards, given annually since 1949, recognising New Zealand's top sporting achievements. They are named for New Zealand middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist Sir Murray Halberg. The initial award was han ...

, after leading the team to a world series victory in South Africa In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have r ...

, for services to softball.

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Sportspeople from Porirua New Zealand softball players New Zealand softball coaches Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit {{NewZealand-softball-bio-stub