Sakis Kechagias from Greece is the new National Women’s Head Coach to lead the Australian Women’s Water Polo team, Water Polo Australia (WPA) has announced.

Kechagias, having served as the Head Coach for the Greece Men’s Senior Team and Head Coach for Greece’s Women’s Team, brings his international experience to the role.

Under his tenure Greece experienced much success on the international stage including a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships.

WPA High Performance Manager Tom Hill said this announcement signals a new era for women’s water polo in Australia and the opportunity for members and supporters to get behind the Aussie Stingers on their journey towards Tokyo 2020.

“The appointment of Sakis Kechagias is very exciting and I’m confident he will create the required creative, empowering, confident environment for our talented players to thrive,” said Hill.

“Sakis brings a wealth of international experience with him to Australia and is well-regarded overseas which is an important factor to influence positive outcomes for Australian teams. He also has a very strong technical and tactical coaching approach with detailed game analysis and is an innovative thinker. His strong family values and emphasis on building a unified team culture aligns well with WPA and I look forward to welcoming Sakis to Australia in the near future,” he said.

Newly appointed Kechagias is excited at the opportunity to work with such a well-respected team as the Aussie Stingers.

“It’s a great honour and privilege for me to become a member of such a great team with a big tradition and success, he enthused.

“I am eager to begin my collaboration with the rest of the team members and of course the players. It’s not going to be an easy task. It’s going to need a lot of effort from all stakeholders involved and it will most definitely require time and patience. However, I am confident that with hard work and practice, determination in our goals and strong ‘can do’ attitude we will meet our objectives and at the end we’ll present a confident, unified, winning team!”