Leon Birnie has retained his role as coach of the Young Football Ferns after the team's historic performance at last year's World Cup in Uruguay.
Birnie guided the New Zealand under-17 women's side to the highest World Cup finish by any Kiwi team in history after they made it out of pool play and stunned Japan in the quarter-finals, eventually beating Canada for bronze.
The Napier-based coach said he's excited to try and go one or two steps better.
"It's really exciting," he said. "As a player or a coach it's an absolute honour to be involved at national level. It's something I love doing and to be reappointed is pretty special for me. I'm just excited to get underway with the next crop of players."
None of the 2018 squad will be eligible for the next World Cup, but Birnie says that's just another challenge to take on.
"I'm hoping it's not a one-off and that we can showcase what good work is being done across the country and really highlight that on the world stage."
After the groundbreaking campaign, Birnie was named a finalist at this year's Halberg Awards for coach of the year. He lost, however, to kayak coach Gordon Walker.
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