Meet the OGU Education & Development Committee

 

Tas Evans – Chair

I am currently the Recreation Programme Manager at Counties Manukau Gymnastics.  Until recently in late 2020, I was the Education Officer of Gymnastics New Zealand (GNZ). I’ve been in various roles on the national staff since 1993. For 14 years, I balanced these roles with a club professional coaching role. Managing and developing multiple Gym for All programmes and staff, which required me to be precise in managing people and my time effectively. I actively coached for 27 years before finally focusing full time on the national roles.

In 2020, I accepted the appointment to lead and Chair the Oceania Gymnastics Union’s Development and Education Committee.

I am a planner and an organised person. I’m familiar with the longer strategic plans and that of shorter term, daily plans. In my coaching role, I had a leadership responsibility to plan programmes and classes. I’m a course facilitator for coaching courses which included teaching others to plan and organise. I am well practised at project planning to initiate the many projects and national gymnastic programmes that I have done to completion. With a keen eye for detail, I am methodical and systematic in dealing with information and data.

During my tenure with GNZ, I travelled extensively in New Zealand to present coach education courses and led the implementation of national Gym for All programmes.  Currently, I manage all the recreation programmes in my club and have the responsibility for the club’s coach/staff training, education and qualifications.

Alice Stooke – Project Coordinator for Development

Alice has been involved in gymnastics for over 20 years, as an athlete, coach, judge and administrator. She is currently a Director at Melbourne Gym Sports and serves as the Gymnastics Victoria AER Technical Director.

Alice is a qualified Accountant and Teacher. She enjoys drawing on her skills developed by working in these fields to help foster the growth of gymnastics within her club, Victoria and the wider pacific region.

Alice has a passion for travel and looks forward to visiting the pacific soon

Debbs van Hagen – Project Coordinator for Education

Debbs is an accredited gymnastics coach in Aerobic Gymnastics, Acrobatic Gymnastics, Competitive Men’s & Women’s gymnastics and General Gymnastics with over 35 years of coaching experience. Debbs started gymnastics in the UK at the age of 4 years and moved to Perth in 1998 and coached in the WA High Performance Program  and Subiaco PCYC before founding Spirit Gymsports in 2003. Her currently coaching role is at Peak Trampoline Club as a Senior Acrobatics Coach.

Debbs is also an experienced National coaching Presenter and Assessor, an accredited Judge in all gymnastics disciplines including an International level judge for Aerobics and Acrobatics and has been Head Coach on the Western Australian State team for Sports Acrobatics for a more than 10 years.

Debbs is the current Technical Director of the Western Australian Sports Acro technical committee, a member of the Australian National Commission for Acrobatic Gymnastics, a member of the Oceania Gymnastics Union education and development committee as well a former board member of Gymnastics Western Australia.

In her spare time Debbs is a mother of two highly entertaining daughters and a full time medical researcher.

Kevin James – Project Coordinator for Pathways

Kevin is a passionate Osteopath and high-performance coach with 4 years teaching experience in a university setting and 6 years facilitating coach education and accreditation courses for the state, national and international federation.

He has a passion for developing, coaching and mentoring which has allowed him to empower, inspire and transform people’s lives. He believes Gymnastics is a growing sport that provides a great physical literacy to members and will therefore use his knowledge and experience with a collaborative team to provide strategic direction and operational outcomes for developing and emerging federations.

He currently is a FIG Academy Technical Expert for the International Gymnastics Federation, a RPL Assessor & GA FIG Academy Expert for Gymnastics Australia as well as a presenter, assessor and supervisor for Gymnastics Victoria. Kevin also volunteers his time for many organisations both as a coach and a judge. He is truly passionate about Gymnastics and gets involved any way he can.

Tessa Eastgate – Project Coordinator for Development

Tessa is currently a board director for the Gymnastics Federation of Fiji and represents Fiji in the Oceania Gymnastics Union board. Her experience as a Training and Organization Development professional across various fields has helped in the growth and progress of gymnastics in Fiji.

Recently, she put up a club in Fiji for parkour, GfA and aerobic gymnastics. Apart from her current profession as a head teacher and her membership into the GFF and OGU board, she is very active in the community as a project manager for initiatives in education and in the arts.