Paul Ackerley

Right-half Paul Ackerley earned 25 caps with the New Zealand national hockey team between 1974 and 1977, with the high point of his career coming when he won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics. Ackerley was also selected for the New Zealand 1980 Olympic hockey team, but did not compete due to the boycott.

Ackerley graduated from the University of Canterbury and played with their hockey club while in school. After graduation Ackerley was a secondary school mathematics teacher at Linwood High School, Christchurch and then head of the maths department at Awatapu College, Palmerston North. Ackerley worked with the New Zealand’s Education Ministry Inspectorate in the 1990s and then from 2002-04 was with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, where he was in the group that developed the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), the official secondary school qualification in New Zealand.

From 2004 until his untimely death due to skin cancer, Ackerley worked with Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) as a senior advisor in coaching and volunteers. Ackerley also remained active in hockey circles, serving as the head coach of the New Zealand national woman’s hockey team for six years and led them to a bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. He also coached the Wellington women’s hockey team.