David Ames Appointed Assistant Coach of England and GB Women’s Programme
David Ames captained England and Great Britain. Now he’s coaching in the women’s programme.
The former captain has been appointed assistant coach of the England and GB women, his first senior coaching role since his international playing career ended. He’ll work alongside the coaching team and the new women’s head coach, whose appointment is still being finalised.
The playing CV needs no padding. More than 145 combined caps. Three Olympic Games: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. He captained England to silver at the 2023 EuroHockey Championships, and he was a Team England ambassador at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
This isn’t a cold start in coaching, either. Since hanging up his stick, Ames has worked part-time inside the central programme and supported the England men’s team at the FIH Pro League and the World Cup. The women’s job is the step up from helping out to owning a piece of the build.
“Build a team capable of competing for medals in LA28”
Ames didn’t hide what the target is. “It’s a huge honour to be working in this role with the women’s programme,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity from the staff and players and I’m excited to be involved moving into the second part of our Olympic cycle.
“The group has an amazing opportunity to build their own history and achieve something special together. My aim is to help this group get better every day, raise our performance standards and build a team capable of competing for medals in LA28.”
Performance Director Bobby Crutchley backed the appointment on coaching qualities, not just the playing record. “While he is at the beginning of his coaching journey, he has already demonstrated many of the qualities that make outstanding coaches: a genuine passion for helping players improve, a curious and thoughtful approach to learning, and a strong understanding of what it takes to build and sustain high performance,” Crutchley said.
The head coach question is still open
The interesting bit is the seat next to him. England and GB Hockey are still in the process of appointing the new women’s head coach to lead the programme through the next phase of the LA 2028 cycle, with further details promised in due course.
So the staff is being built before the boss is named. That tells you Ames was wanted regardless of who lands the top job, and that the programme sees this cycle as a rebuild with named pieces, not a caretaker drift. Whoever takes the head coach role inherits a former captain as their assistant, and a group being told plainly that LA28 medals are the standard.
The vacancy itself is here: GB and England women’s head coach job. On the men’s side, the Zak Jones head coach position is settled, and the Rankings page tracks both programmes.
