Jock Davis has been appointed ONSW junior squad coach for 2014 and Sally Devenish the manager. Margaret Jones will take on the new role of assistant manager with responsibility for squad finances, allowing Jock and Sally to concentrate on their core tasks.
Jock (known affectionately by club mates as King of the Rock) started orienteering at the age of 15 while at Knox Grammar. In 1988 he achieved (at that time) Australia's best ever placing in a World Cup event finishing 11th in Tasmania and went on to become Australian M21E champion in 1991, and close runner up in the Easter 3 Days in the same year. Jock represented Australia in three successive World Orienteering Championships from 1989 to 1993 and more recently has been a member of the MetrOLeague-winning Big Foot Division side for the past 5 years. Jock's involvement with orienteering in NSW has also included organising, course setting and coaching - setting the courses for the 1993 Australian Championships, and achieving his Level 1 Coaching Accreditation approx. 10 years ago.
Compared to Jock, Sally came to orienteering relatively recently and is a member of the Western Plains club, formed after the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Dubbo in 2007. Sally's first event was in the following year at the 2008 Easter 3 Days in Dubbo on the JWOC maps. Now competing in the W45 age class, Sally has two daughters Kate and Rebecca, both of whom are in the squad. According to Sally, her claim to fame is that she does come back after starting an event!
Jock and Sally replace the long-serving Nick Dent and Karen Blatchford, Nick now being Orienteering Australia's High Performance Operations Manager. There's no rest for Karen either - she has just been appointed OA's JWOC manager for 2014 and 2015.
A report on the activities of the Carbines (ONSW Schools Team) for 2013 can be found here.
Orienteering NSW sincerely thanks Karen (and husband Russell) and Nick for all that they have done over many years of involvement with the junior squad and school teams.
