KNYSNA NEWS - A local stalwart in rugby and founder of Knysna's Titans Women's Rugby Club and Academy is seeing the fruits of his many years of labour and promoting the sport, after he was recently selected to head SWD Rugby's portfolio for women's rugby.
Aschin Klein – or "Coach Ash" as he is affectionately known by his players and the community – has been developing women's rugby in Knysna for the past 14 years. In this time, he says, he has produced more than 40 female provincial players and about six players who have received national recognition, such as Springbok 7s player Mathrin Simmers.
His aim with SWD, says Klein, will be to put measures in place for the women's team to gain promotion into the A-division as well as be competitive within the next two years after winning the B-division twice over the last 10 years.
Aiming for A-division
"The easy part will be for the senior team to get promotion in the next two years and the challenge will be to grow depth and put structures in place to ensure we can stand tall once we get to the A-division," he added.
Klein even had a short stint at the Kenya Rugby Union as a consulting coach for their national women's 7s team, the Kenya Lionesses. "My sole mandate was to help the team qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics while also mentoring the coaching staff," he says. The team went on to win their first-ever world series qualifier that year and qualified for the Olympics. "Both coaches I mentored ended up being promoted to the coaching staff of the men's 7s team that year," he adds.
In his hometown of Knysna, Klein guided the Greater Knysna Rugby Club from last position on the SWD Club Rugby rankings to undefeated in 2018, with their only loss being in the season finale.
Long-term vision
Sports development, he says, is a process of increasing people's choices and the opportunities available to all members of society. "Based on the principles of inclusion, equity and sustainability, emphasis is on the importance of increasing opportunities for the current generation as well as generations to come," he adds.
"My aim is to use rugby as a tool in areas where ladies do not have real positive alternatives. We however can't use rugby as a tool if we do not establish a rugby club in those areas to facilitate the code and a competition structure that will stimulate the athletes and create an opportunity for participation and inclusion in sport. That will create the perfect platform for development, but more important is that we will be enlarging girls' and women's choices and also increasing opportunities for the current generation of female athletes as well as generations to come.
"We will have to get the corporate world to invest into the women's game to create these equal opportunities for our female athletes. I invite businesses to get in contact with me if they want to invest through sponsorship. I am extremely excited about the challenge in front of me and looking forward to working with the rest of the SWD executive to take SWD Rugby to the next level."
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