Gail Parata has been named Central Pulse’s new head coach replacing Yvette McCausland-Durie in the ANZ Premiership.

The 52 year-old has returned to the club after she served as an assistant netball coach for the 2010/11 season. 

Parata has gained experienced in coaching roles at Scotland Thistles and Vitality Superleague team Strathclyde Sirens.

She will now take over from McCausland-Durie who helped guide Pulse to back-to-back titles in the league during the past two seasons. 

Parata said: "I’m absolutely delighted, it has always been a goal of mine.

"It’s a put the work in, get the rewards type of thing and has gone full journey. Back in the day, I wasn’t an experienced head coach but took the punt to go overseas and it was the best decision I made.

"I absolutely think with all the experiences I’ve had and places I’ve been, has set me up well for the Pulse job. 

"I qualified the Scottish team for two World Cups and a Commonwealth Games. When I arrived in Scotland, they were fourth in the UK rankings behind England, Wales and Northern Ireland and I managed to get them up to second.

“There were lots of challenges over there but I loved my time, loved the people, the athletes were great and I got a tremendous amount of learning from the experience.”