REIGNING Horsham District league premiers Harrow-Balmoral have been on the front foot early, re-securing their assistant coaches for next season, as well as locking in the rest of their football coaching appointments.
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Senior coach Nick Pekin had already re-signed, with assistant coaches Simon Close and Hamish Ellis also re-committing to the club for a premiership defence.
Nathan Neumann will look after the reserves, Ryan McClure the under-17s and Tom Austin the under-14s.
Harrow-Balmoral president Rosemary Langley said it was an easy decision to re-sign Close and Ellis as assistant coaches.
The 2018 season was the first time they had been assistant coaches for the seniors with the Southern Roos.
“It was an easy decision. Our football department had a discussion with all the players to see how they felt with how things went this season,” Ms Langley said.
“It was Hamish’s first season as a senior assistant but he had done a great job as assistant with the under-17s in previous seasons.
“Simon has fit in very well and has a wealth of knowledge.”
Pekin said he was excited to work with the same coaches next season.
“Simon coming back to the club was a huge bonus,” he said.
“Hamish is a well-respected player around the club and held his own pretty high. We complemented each other fairly well. Hamish knows all the players really well and Simon brought that professionalism to the club. I look forward to that relationship blossoming next season.”
Ms Langley said the focus now would be on retention and recruiting. Two high profile former Harrow-Balmoral players with futures to weigh up currently are Michael Close and Eric Guthrie.
“The recruiting team has been working really hard at retaining players and we will probably lose a couple but the recruiters will look at what positions we need bolstering,” she said.