Article Written By Te Korowai - Sport Performance Coaches NZ

Antonia Harrison recalls being screamed at by a coach who would throw chairs and break clipboards. But it inspired her to be the exact opposite as a coach. Harrison is the head coach of the New Zealand A beach volleyball programme, returning home after playing and coaching at North Florida University. When she finished high school, Harrison wasn’t too sure where life was going to take her. “I knew I like people and I like food, so let’s just do human nutrition - and that’s literally how much I thought about it,” says Harrison, going to Massey University in Auckland but not enjoying the experience. So she moved to the US, initially for indoor volleyball, but experienced a very unpleasant environment with a poor team culture.

“I didn’t go halfway across the world to be miserable, so I ended up transferring to my school in Florida,” Harrison explains. Harrison started playing water polo in primary school, but was hooked on volleyball the very first time she played indoors in high school. “I didn’t have the greatest time in a team environment with water polo, so it was cool to go from that to volleyball,” she says. “You mess up and everyone still high-fives you, and has a little team huddle after each point, I was like oh this is so nice.” In Year 12, Harrison started beach volleyball and loved the challenge of being involved in every play and being on the sand. So the move to North Florida University for beach volleyball under amazing coaches inspired Harrison to play there from 2017-2021 and then coach from 2022-2024. “I loved it there, loved the team environment, loved my coaches, loved the school, loved the city,” she says. “So once I finished my undergrad, I came home for a year and then went back and coached for another two years - they couldn’t keep me away!” 

When Harrison came back to New Zealand, she was struggling to balance work and volleyball, and became overwhelmed. So she turned to her faith. She prayed for her head coach’s husband to reach out - thinking it was a far-fetched request, so if it happened, it was meant to be. “Literally the next day, I’m not even kidding, I woke up to a message from my old coach’s husband, saying ‘Hey I heard you want to come back and coach’, and I was like what the heck, there’s no way, I was shocked,” she says. She went back on a student visa, studying towards her Masters in business management. Harrison loved it, and was pretty dead-set on staying in America long-term. But a call from Volleyball New Zealand came in, which gave her a tricky decision. “The more I thought about it, the more it did sound super appealing to me,” Harrison says about coming home to coach. “There wasn’t a whole lot of point to stay in America, just for a bunch of assistant roles, when it’s so far away from family. And I love New Zealand, I love my family, it’s pretty hard being away from them. At a church conference, Harrison felt an overwhelming sense of ‘home’, and not long after, she was unable to get a visa to stay in the US. “All these doors started closing in the States, but doors were opening in New Zealand. So it all worked out so seamlessly, which is so crazy to look back and reflect on, cause it all fell into place.”

Her role as the head coach of NZA is through High Performance Sport New Zealand, and the Women in High Performance Sport Residency Experience programme. “[The programme is] trying to get more women involved in high performance sport, which is wicked, such a cool way to get a foot in the door and more exposure for female coaches and female staff in high performance settings,” Harrison says. 

She coaches just over 20 athletes, with the aim for them to develop to the high performance networks, and for that transition to be as seamless as possible. International beach volleyball has three tiers of competition - elites, challengers and futures. “My athletes are probably sitting in the futures category, so just trying to give them an introduction to world tour volleyball and what that means, the travel, the experience of playing, the different competitions,” Harrison says. “We host one, we have one at Mount Maunganui every year, which is super cool to have international calibre athletes come onto home sand, and experience New Zealand and Mount Maunganui beach, which I think is one of the best beaches you could play on in the world.” They have training on the sand up to five times a week, and along with coaching, Harrison also guides them with eating habits and sleep and recovery advice - to aid them in becoming well-rounded people and athletes. “They work full-time or study full-time, so it’s harder to manage the stresses of all of that and still have volleyball be a release and a joy they like coming to, rather than feeling like it’s a job and mundane,” she says. Growing up, Harrison’s mum Kristen coached netball, so Antonia had a positive role model in her sporting life. 

“I’ve had a lot of coaches in my life, from water polo, netball, volleyball and just saw how much of a difference it makes - having good coaches that believe in you and allow you space to figure things out on your own and are there as your cheerleaders, and care about you, but also hold you accountable at the same time,” she says. “I wanted to be a coach like that for people.” Her head coach in Florida, Doug Wright, was a great example of a positive coach for her, and someone who inspires her style of coaching. Harrison wants her players to play with freedom, with fun and for the joy of the game and the people around them. On her first introduction to her athletes, she asked the best way for them to receive constructive criticism. “I only want to add to your love for the game, never subtract from it, so if there’s a way I can say things different to you, or serve you in a better way, I would like to know,” she would say to her athletes. In beach volleyball, the coach isn’t with the players during a match - “So basically the better I am at my job, the less they need me,” Harrison says. 

“It’s a challenge of their emotional regulation, their ability to self-diagnose and correct techniques and different things in the game because I talk to them before and afterwards and that’s that.” Harrison is a firm believer in the concept of if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. “I love the game, I love learning about it,” she says honestly. “I love the people I get to meet and figuring out how each human being perceives things and relates to things and how they learn, how they grow, seeing them get things, not get things, how to problem-solve with them, it’s such a cool job.” Harrison loves how there’s always something to learn with coaching. 

“With beach volleyball, there’s so many different ways to do things and so much of our game is trial and error in the sand, so strategy and game plans - that’s how I view coaching as well,” she says. “Just being open to asking questions, getting context around people and situations and to make more sense of things before making decisions, get all the information, ask lots of questions to make decisions. “You’re always learning, there’s always a different way to do something, depending on the athlete that you have, and their upbringing, their experiences. There’s never a destination you get to with learning, there’s just so much that’s out there, just figure out what works for you in terms of team environments in your sport.” 

This article is republished with permission from Te Korowai - Sport Performance Coaches NZ