Chanel Alberts
Chanel Alberts lives for Rugby. She is a qualified Rugby and Strength & Conditioning coach, involved in both rugby and athletics. She is also a qualified facilitator and assessor with experience as a lecturer in the field of Sport Science and Sport Psychology. She graduated from the University of Johannesburg with Honours in Sport Science and is currently lecturing at the ETA college Johannesburg.
Chanel approached Pirates Rugby Club to start a women’s team in 2017, and is the head coach, leading the team to win Team of the Year in 2019, the first ever win for a women’s team in the 100+ year history of the club. She coached the Golden Lions Women's rugby team in 2019, who went on to win the SA Rugby Women's Interprovincial B-Division Title.
Chanel has experience in managing, playing, coaching and conditioning teams at various levels, including athletics, netball, and both men and women’s rugby teams. She is laser-focused on the growth and development of rugby for women in schools, clubs and at national level and continuously strives towards a pioneering approach to coaching women’s rugby at a professional level.
Her passion is to empower women in rugby, developing skills to overcome the challenges they face and accelerating them to provincial and even national level. She has become a significant force in driving the change of perception around the women’s game.
