South Australian coach Jacqui Illman has achieved the highest level of coaching status in Australia, becoming an official High Performance Coach in 2024.
She joins an exclusive group of SA coaches to have reached this level after participating in Netball Australia's High Performance Course over the past two years.
Illman is the current Head Coach of the South Australian Sports Institute's netball program and Head Coach of the Adelaide Thunderbirds Futures side who competed in the inaugural Super Netball Reserves competition in 2024.
A former Adelaide Thunderbird herself, Illman spent a decade as Head Coach of the Matrics Netball Club Premier League side before joining SASI, picking up six premierships along the way.
She participated in Netball SA's Targeted Coach Program in 2019, led by Adelaide Thunderbirds assistant coach Cathy Fellows, in the same year she began attending Thunderbirds trainings to elevate her exposure to the Super Netball environment.
In 2020, she joined the club's coaching ranks as a Specialist Coach alongside Fellows and Head Coach Tania Obst.
From there, she led the South Australian Southern Force side (now called Adelaide Thunderbirds Futures) to a gold medal at the 2022 Australian Netball Championships and has been head coach of the side ever since.
