Queen's Birthday Honours 2022: Ruth Aitken joins rare group of netball Dames

Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

Ms Ruth Ellina Aitken, ONZM

For services to netball

Netball has another Dame. Dame Ruth Aitken has been recognised for coaching the Silver Ferns through one of their greatest runs - the 2003 World Netball Championship and the back-to-back golds at the Commonwealth Games.

She joins Dame Lois Muir and Dame Noeline Taurua as netball coaches to earn the honour.

"It's wonderful, there's no doubt about it," Aitken said. "A bit of a shock, I must admit. I had to read the letter a couple of times. But I feel very blessed and very honoured.

"I'm just very grateful to have received it. It's been a wonderful opportunity to reflect on some pretty cool times."

Aitken coached the Silver Ferns to win the 2003 World Netball Championship and the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games. The team also won silver at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2007 and 2011 World Netball Championships.

Aitken had the longest tenure as Silver Ferns coach, in charge of the side for 112 tests. She was then Netball New Zealand coaching director from 2011 to 2013, leading initiatives to encourage increased participation at all levels of coaching.

Asked about the highlights of her career with the Silver Ferns, Aitken pointed to the players rather than any particular results.

"It's actually the people that have come through the Silver Fern programme," she said. "Seeing some of those youngsters who came in as teenagers - and I think about Laura [Langman] and Casey [Kopua] and Maria [Folau] who came in at 18 or 19, then 10 or 12 years later they were still contributing in such a positive way to the team and to that 2019 [World Cup] win.

"Just seeing players grow and develop and take on the world, that's the best thing."

Silver Ferns' coach Ruth Aitken briefs the team during the 2011 season. Photo / Photosport

From 2013 she moved to Singapore and coached the national team to win the Asian Championships and South East Asian Games. She returned to New Zealand in 2016, taking up the role of performance manager of Netball Waikato Bay of Plenty Zone through to the end of 2019.

She has been a member of the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand since 2017. In 2021, as well as receiving a service award from World Netball, Aitken was made a life member of Netball New Zealand, in recognition of her service to netball, promoting the game and inspiring a generation of young netballers.

Now she has became a Dame - though don't expect her to be adopting that title too readily.

"That doesn't quite fit yet so I think just Ruth will do," she said. "I'm sure when I'm at the supermarket in Paeroa it will just be Ruth."