Double Olympian Dan Fox will be joining Guildford Hockey Club as of 1st August as Director of Hockey. This is a fantastic opportunity for the club to build upon our recent successes.
Dan joins us from Charterhouse where he has been Director of Hockey for the past three seasons and where he has transformed the hockey programme, coaching the 1st XI to back-to-back England Hockey Tier 2 Finals.
During this time he has also been coaching with England Hockey and this season just passed, played for Old Georgians HC, helping them earn promotion to the Premier League. Last week he was voted into the All Stars MHL Conference East team - the 11 best players in the XI positions from all ten teams this season.
Some highlights of his playing career include captaining Great Britain in the 2015 World League Finals in Raipur, scoring against Argentina in GB's first match of the London 2012 Olympics, and being named UK Sports Writers' Player of the Year in 2016.
Dan announced his retirement from international hockey in December 2016 with 101 England and 63 GB caps. He had competed in nearly 20 international tournaments including the World Cup in 2014, the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics.
In addition to his long playing career at the top levels of hockey, Dan comes to us with extensive coaching experience - a range that includes running camps for the littlest juniors all the way to assisting with the GB men's team and coaching England U21 men and women, the England Hockey Performance Centres and more.
Dan's love of hockey started very young when hockey was a family affair - mum played for Olton & West Warwicks, one of the Midlands Leading clubs, where she captained the side from Conference to the top league and then managed the side from there. Dad umpired at the club and has spent years developing the youth cricket section of the club. Both sisters also played with the elder sister a former England Junior.
From Olton Dan went on to captain the Oxford University team where he earned blues for both hockey and cricket. Dan cut his teeth in the Premier League with Hampstead and Westminster HC, eventually captaining the side and getting noticed by the England coaches.
Dan was first selected for England to participate in the Champion's Trophy in November 2009 in Melbourne, Australia and then spent 7 years in the system while playing for HandWHC and then Holcombe HC.
Many GHC players, volunteers and parents will have seen Dan at GHC over the past two seasons when he contributed to the club's hockey as our Director of Junior Coaching. Dan brought coaching education sessions to our wide and diverse group of coaches in the Junior Section which ranges from Duke of Edinburgh helpers to former national league and GB players!
Dan has also been running our Junior Skills camps and has done coaching of various Junior teams including as part of our Boys Under 18 back-to-back South and National Indoor titles.
Dan is married to Jeni who teaches Chemistry at Charterhouse and they have a young daughter.
He is really looking forward to getting stuck in and meeting more and more people at GHC:
"My job will be to create an environment in which all our players, coaches, umpires and supporters have a great experience on the hockey pitch. This includes being part of both the adult and junior sections and working with our social and performance teams to build on the long and successful history of the club.
"In a day-to-day capacity you will see me running coaching sessions, leading the club’s coaching team, providing a link between the junior and adult sections, looking after the club’s links with local schools and other organisations, and providing a route into the Player Pathway for elite junior players.
"The Club has an impressive group of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers that already deliver coaching, captain teams, umpire, book pitches, register players and generally ensure that Guildford Hockey Club is a great place to play.
"That structure will continue to be an important part of how we operate, and as the club grows and we add more senior sides and increase our junior membership, we will continue to encourage more people to get involved.
"I look forward to seeing you at the club and to a bright and successful future."
To see more about the Director of Hockey role - what it encompasses and how it fits with other parts of our organisation - please
click here to go to our GHC Vision and Organisation webpage
