Hockey Ireland is delighted to announce the return of the Female Coach Development Programme for the 2026/27 season, with applications now officially open.
Following the successful launch of the initiative last season, the programme will once again support female coaches across the country through mentoring, networking opportunities, webinars, and development events designed to help more women progress into leadership coaching roles.
The programme forms part of Hockey Ireland’s ongoing commitment to creating a more inclusive and representative coaching environment across all levels of the game.
Despite 72% of hockey players in Ireland being women and girls, female coaches remain significantly underrepresented at higher levels of the sport. Currently, only 2 out of 20 head coaches in the EY Hockey League are women. Similar trends can be seen across Europe, with Belgium (2/24), the Netherlands (1/24), and Germany, England, and Spain currently having no female head coaches in their respective top leagues.
This imbalance is also reflected across wider sport. In the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, for example, the majority of coaches are male, while in the Women’s League of Ireland, only one team is currently led by a female head coach.
Encouragingly, participation numbers at entry-level coaching courses show strong female representation. In 2024, 69% of participants on Fundamentals of Coaching courses were female, while women made up 56% of participants at Level 1. However, this figure drops significantly at Level 2, where female participation currently stands at just 23%.
To better understand the barriers facing female coaches, Hockey Ireland hosted a Female Coaches Forum in 2025, bringing together coaches from across the country to share experiences and provide feedback which directly informed the development of the programme.
Key challenges identified included:
The Female Coach Development Programme aims to directly address these challenges by providing a supportive network and clear development opportunities for female coaches at different stages of their journey.
The 2026/27 programme will support a group of female coaches through one-to-one mentoring and community-building opportunities, while also delivering a wider series of webinars and events that will be open to all female coaches — not just those formally enrolled in the mentoring programme.
Hockey Ireland believes that increasing female representation in coaching is essential to the continued growth and development of the sport and hopes the programme will encourage more women to take the next step in their coaching journey.
Applications for the 2026/27 Female Coach Development Programme are now open. Apply Now!