OFC/NZF B License

Ben Bate has been the Head Coach of the Forrest Hill Senior Women's team for the last 3 seasons alongside other development roles at the club. As the Women’s Head of Football at Northern Rovers he will take an overarching view of the development of our Girls and Women’s football programme. He’ll build on the strategies and pathways already in place and necessary to develop an unrivalled and compelling environment that attracts, develops and retains the best talent in our Club.

Included in his remit, Ben will head coach the Women’s Premier team.

Ben has worked with both the Northern and Auckland National Women's League teams, winning the competition with Auckland in 2017 as an assistant coach under current FFDP lead Gemma Lewis. He has been to two World Cups (Men's U20 in 2015 and Women's U17 in 2016) as a technical staff member. Prior to this, he worked with the Football Association of Wales as technical staff member through their Women's pathway from U15 to Senior International including the U19 UEFA Women's European Championships in 2013. Whilst completing his BSc in Sports Coaching and Sports Science Masters Degree Ben worked with perennial Welsh Premier League Champions The New Saints as a technical staff member winning 3 league titles and 2 National Cups in 4 years as well as competing in Champions League qualifiers that took him to Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Sweden and Denmark amongst others. Ben is the current Head Coach of The Northern Lights playing in the National Women’s League.