Former South African player and Olympian, Greg Nicol, will be the Black Sticks men's new head coach, Hockey New Zealand have announced.
Nicol takes the role after a long history with both the team and Hockey NZ.
After earning 200 caps for South Africa, which included Olympic campaigns in 1996 and 2004, Nicol eventually made his way to Kiwi shores to join the Black Sticks men as an assistant coach at the 2008 Beijing Games.
He had the same role for the men in 2016 in Rio having assisted the women in 2012 in London.
In 2017, he stepped away to take a newly created role as the athlete pathway manager for Hockey NZ, where he laid the foundations for a national talent development system.
Nicol left the position to pursue other opportunities in 2019 but said he is excited to return to the setup.
"With a Commonwealth Games next year, and a World Cup the year after, it's an exciting time to take on this opportunity to lead our men through this next phase," Nicol said.
"I'm looking forward to getting stuck in and building on the strong foundations that have been laid by Darren and the wider coaching staff.
"There is great work going on behind the scenes to make our high- performance programme the best it can be - HNZ has a clear vision and support structure to make this happen. Plus, I'm excited to see some familiar faces back in training."
Hockey New Zealand's general manager high performance, Darren Smith, said he was looking forward to working with Nicol again.
"He is a direct and attack-minded coach who has a clear and concise vision on how the team will play," Smith said.
"Greg is a highly valued coach who was able to have a significant impact on the players through the Rio Olympic campaign."
Nicol will officially start the role at the beginning of February with selection camps taking place in preparation for the Commonwealth games.
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