Abbey McKenzie hops in her car to start another busy week.
It is one of the many trips she will make between her Oamaru home and either Dunedin or Invercargill for her commitments as head coach of the Southern Blast.
As she heads down the road, there is always one person who crosses her mind: her mentor, the late Georgie Salter.
"I still get goosebumps every time I go down the Kaitiki straight. It just has this real meaning that she’s with me," McKenzie said.
After McKenzie coached her home club, Valley, to six consecutive North Otago netball titles, Salter, a former Silver Fern and renowned coach, told McKenzie to join her in Dunedin coaching Southern in 2016.
"You just couldn’t say no to her," McKenzie said, laughing.
"She’d just arrive at my doorstep and pick me up — it was just not an option."
Salter was head coach of the Blast in the national league in those days, and took McKenzie under her wing, bringing her on as an apprentice in 2017-2018.
After Salter died in late 2018, McKenzie took a step back from high-performance coaching in 2019.
But when Jo Morrison, who was coached by Salter as a player for Otago, took over as Blast head coach, McKenzie returned as her assistant for three years.
"The connection that Jo and I built really quickly was because of Georgie. We both had been hugely influenced by her in playing and coaching," McKenzie said.
McKenzie took over as head coach in 2024 and another layer was added when McKenzie called on one of her best mates, Salter’s daughter, Rihi, to be her assistant, alongside Wendy Frew.
It was a full-circle moment for the pair, one that came about when McKenzie needed someone to "ask the hard questions" of her and knew her friend would never be afraid to challenge her.
They honoured their mentor, too.
Playing their NNL curtain-raiser for the Georgie Salter Memorial in Dunedin last year, McKenzie had a feeling her Blast team were going to win.
"I just had this real aura she was there" — the whole game.
As Rihi squeezed McKenzie’s leg, goal attack Ella Southby nailed her shot on fulltime to reward the Blast, and the floodgates of emotion opened for their coaching staff.
"That’s something that I’ll never forget," McKenzie said.
"There’s so many highlights in eight years, but that really sticks out.
"There were so many North Otago people there. It was just really cool as a head coach, to be in a stadium full of people that really had your back and knew that Georgie was there, Rihi beside you ... it was a real pinch-me moment."
Salter’s impact on McKenzie had been immeasurable.
"She just had this incredible ability to see something in people that they hadn’t seen in themselves yet," McKenzie said.
"Georgie’s just been invaluable in the sense of pushing me outside of my comfort zone, making me realise that I could do this when I didn’t think I could.
"She’s had such an influence over this zone."
Being part of the Blast is something McKenzie holds close to her heart.
But after eight years in the NNL, it is time to step away and refresh.
McKenzie sees the value in the second-tier programme providing a crucial part of the Netball New Zealand pathway.
But it does not come without its struggles.
"It’s totally under-valued and under-resourced.
"Our job is predominantly to develop athletes to be ready for the ANZ [Premiership], but we’re not resourced to do that.
"It is incredibly difficult to coach at this level because you’re always trying to find a way to make it work.
"I’m just a huge advocate for this space and it’s just so vital.
"There’s so much for the secondary schools, there’s under-18s ... and then they leave school and what is there apart from [New Zealand open championships]?"
The South differed from other zones. Blast players were predominantly fulltime students — the average age is 20 — who were fitting training around work and study commitments, among other restrictions.
Games were only scheduled for weekends and the competition was cut back from one and a-half rounds to one this year.
"There was no way to see growth because you can’t measure it against much."
McKenzie acknowledged results had not always gone the Blast’s way, but success did not always come in the form of wins.
Seeing players make the step up to ANZ Premiership teams was rewarding.
The Blast have plugged the gaps for the Southern Steel through injury-riddled seasons, including having Grace and Ella Southby, Holly McRae, Emilie Nicholson and Laura Balmer getting minutes.
Balmer was rewarded with a full contract with the Central Pulse this year, and former Steel players Taneisha Fifita and Jen O’Connell also came through the Blast.
"When you look at our success rate of transitioning ... we do that really well from the Blast," McKenzie said.
"‘I look at the players over the eight seasons that I’ve been involved that have progressed to play for ANZ, not necessarily for the Steel, but other franchises, that for me is success.
"The thing I loved about being a head coach is, how do we make this programme successful and how do we be innovative enough to develop not just the Blast, but those below us as well?
"I really enjoyed that challenge, but I just really want to see this space valued more."
Since February, McKenzie has racked up 16,800km of travelling just for netball.
If she is lucky, she makes it home by 11pm after trainings, but other times she is walking through the door at 1am then up at 6am to get her children ready for the day.
It is a big workload, but McKenzie is proud to show people you can be a high-performance coach from anywhere.
"I’m really lucky.
"Obviously Georgie led that way for us up here and I look at how many players North Otago’s actually [produced] as well.
"I’m very, very grateful for the North Otago committee. They’ve done nothing but support and advocate for me."
She wanted to take some time to refresh and do some more studying in the "netball arena" next year.
McKenzie has also been the coach developer in North Otago since 2020, having previously spent seven years as the association’s development officer, and is a long-serving committee member.
She saw a need for more upskilling of North Otago athletes and recognised how big an impact Covid had on certain age-groups.
"I really want to up skill some more coaches as well and invest in that way for a little bit.
"Just take a year out and no doubt I’ll do something."
McKenzie, who also runs her own business, Enhance Occupational Therapy, has loved every minute with the Blast, but concedes she could not do it without her team at home.
Her husband, Hamish, had been her MVP — "in the eight years, he has never once moaned" — and had been a great sounding board and cheerleader.
Their daughters, Harper, 11, and Milla, 9, were "hardcore" Blast fans and had been at the forefront of her mind through the years.
"That’s been my ‘why’ the whole way.
"Obviously the players that I coach, and giving them the same opportunities that netball’s given me.
"But the driving force is to show my two that no matter what, as a female, it doesn’t matter where you live, if you want it and you put the hard work in then you can do anything.
"I hope that through this they’ll look back and go ‘that’s pretty cool’."
