The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has announced the latest recruits in its National Coach Scholarship Program (NCSP), a progressive national training and development pathway for emerging Australian high performance coaches.

The captain of the Australian women’s water polo team, Melissa Rippon, is just one of the nation’s top elite athletes who is making the transition to coaching through the NCSP. Other athletes joining the program include former Canberra Capitals women’s basketball player Peta Sinclair, former Perth Wildcats men’s basketball player Adam Caporn, former junior team pursuit world champion cyclist Gene Bates and Olympian and Commonwealth Games 50km bronze medallist walker Chris Erickson.

The NCSP enhances the training and development of future high performance coaches by providing practical hands-on coaching experience supported by an experienced mentor, a professional development plan tailored to the needs of each scholarship coach and the opportunity to undertake a postgraduate qualification in sports coaching.

The new recruits will join the 12 existing NCSP scholarship coaches — including dual Paralympic cycling gold medallist Peter Brooks — who are about to embark on the final year of their two-year scholarships. The entire group will come together 15–18 February in Canberra to participate in their first professional development block for 2010.

Cyclist David McPartland is due to finish the NCSP shortly and will then join other graduates who have successful transitioned from the program to the role of national assistant coach for their sport.

2010 National Coach Scholarship Program recruits

• Chris Erickson — athletics (Australian Institute of Sport — Canberra campus, part time) 
• Peta Sinclair — women’s basketball (Australian Institute of Sport — Canberra campus)
• Adam Caporn — men’s basketball (Australian Institute of Sport — Canberra campus)
• Gene Bates — cycling (Australian Institute of Sport — Adelaide campus/European Training Centre — Varese, Italy)
• Tracey Penaluna — gymnastics (Victorian Institute of Sport — Melbourne)
• Tom Morris — rowing (Australian Institute of Sport — Canberra campus)
• Johnny Rodgers — sailing (Victorian Institute of Sport — Melbourne)
• Peter McNiel — skiing (Olympic Winter Institute — Melbourne and Mount Buller training facility)
• Dan Atkins — triathlon (Australian Institute of Sport — Gold Coast campus)
• Melissa Rippon — water polo (Queensland Academy of Sport — Brisbane campus, part time).