Barbara Cox

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Barbara Cox

ACTIVITY	PERIOD	ACHIEVEMENT
Coaching	1983-92	Auckland Women's FA youth coach
		Age-grade national tournament winners every year
	1990-93	Eden senior women's coach
		Eden AFC Director of Junior Coaching
		Took Eden U-13 boys to Dallas Cup
	1990	Auckland U-18s, coach - Dana Cup winners
		Auckland "A Team", assistant coach - national champions (Coach, Allan Jones)
	1991	Auckland "A Team", assistant coach - national champions (Coach, Doug Moore)
		Northern Premier Women's League champions - Eden
		Auckland Women's Knockout Shield winners - Eden
	1996-2000	Auckland Women's FA Development Coach
	1996	Four-match tour of Tonga - four wins
	1998	Six-match tour of Malaysia & The Phillipines - five wins, one draw
	2000	Six-match tour of South America - four wins, one draw Included two wins over Paraguay's national team, two wins over Uruguay's leading club teams, and a draw with Argentina's national team.
		National Coach of Tahiti - won the Polynesia Cup
	2003-05	Established soccer for Special Olympics in Auckland. Consisted of setting up a weekly coaching programme of skills and games in four areas of Auckland for eight weeks

Administration	1978-92	Auckland Women's FA, Secretary
	1980-84	Auckland FA Control Board Member
		Coaching Chairwoman - established: U-19 boys representative selection programme; Coaching programme for boys in secondary schools; Establishment of a library for coaching books and videos; Team McMillan Soccer Skills Awards (predecessor to the Small Whites programme)
	1999	Women's Soccer Association of NZ, Executive Member
	2000-01	NZ Soccer Women's Committee member
	2002-05	Member of WSANZ sub-committee which took a grievance case against NZ Soccer to the Human Rights Commission (re NZ Soccer's failure to enter both the OFC Olympic Women's Qualifying and U-19 Women's World Cup qualifying tournaments)
	2006-09	NZ Football Women's Advisory Group, Chairwoman
	2006-	University-Mt. Wellington AFC, Secretary
		Mt. Wellington Stadium Trust trustee (currently orchestrating a campaign to turn Bill McKinlay Park into a mini-stadium with artificial turf)

Other		Life Memberships - Auckland Women's FA; University-Mt. Wellington AFC
	1973-87	Auckland women's soccer representative and captain - 123 caps
	1975-87	New Zealand women's soccer representative and captain - 33 caps
	1980	Auckland Women's FA Player of the Year
	1986	NZ Soccer Senior Coaching Badge
	1988	Oceania Football Confederation Level 3 Coaching Certificate
	1991	Soccer Auckland Coach of the Year
	1993	Hillary Commission - Women In Action, Leadership Award
	1994	Sociology - annual prize winner, University of Auckland
	1995	NZ Soccer Hall of Fame Inductee (see link below)
	1996	Awarded MBE for services to soccer
	2009	Completed PhD in Sociology at Waikato University

It is extremely doubtful whether New Zealand would have made the progress it has in the women's game in particular in recent years were it not for the pioneering efforts of Barbara Cox, often in tandem with Carol Waller.

Take, for instance, the concept of rolling substitutes. Barbara and Carol saw the idea being employed in Hawaii, while they were on a women's football course, and brought it back with them.

They had an almighty battle with the status quo merchants, but prevailed, and it is now part and parcel of the game through all grades of football bar senior level.

Then there was the ten-year battle to get mixed football - boys and girls playing in the same teams up until their teenage years - in place throughout Junior Football. Yes, you have Barbara to blame for that now being de rigeur, too!

These and other such initiatives were instigated and fought for while she was:

captaining her country in the bulk of her 33 appearances;

leading Auckland on the park throughout the majority of her 123 games in blue-and-white;

winning league and cup honours galore with Eden, Eastern Suburbs and Mt. Wellington;

proving herself a dab hand at coaching and administration - refer left;

raising two future NZ internationals - Michele and Tara - in tandem with her husband, Roy, NZ women's football's principle driving force throughout its first thirty-odd years.

She's the first to admit it's been an "interesting" journey, and many's the occasion she has found herself battering her head against a brick wall in an effort to progress the cause.

Yes, she ended up with a sore head at times, but as a former nurse, applying the necessary bandages to herself proved no problem.

She had no intention of repairing the damage to the wall, however, with the numerous cracks generated over many such episodes proving greatly beneficial to the game as a whole over the years.

Life away from football is something which Barbara is tending more towards these days, as her sociology studies have progressed towards completing her PhD, which she did at Waikato University in 2009 - the topic was to examine the past seventy years to show how social, physical and medical discourses have empowered or constrained women's full participation in football in New Zealand.

Throughout this period, she has had a number of papers published. In 2000, an international review for the sociology of sport entitled "Multiple bodies: Sportswomen, Soccer and Sexuality" saw the light of day.

Two years later, "Facing the bogey: Women in football", a journal of football studies, saw the light of day, while in 2004 Barbara contributed "From heydays to struggles: Women's soccer in New Zealand" to a publication edited by In Fan Hong and J. A. Mangan.

"Soccer, women, sexual liberation: Kicking off a new era" held top spot for the most cited / read articles on the topic for nearly six years, and is a very insightful read on the women's game.

Stars of the Past Hall of Fame Inductees All In The Family