Playing in a Māori netball tournament resonates strongly with Trident High School’s Te Waimarino Takamore.

The talented 13-year-old has been selected in the Waiāriki under-15 netball team to play at the Māori Netball Nationals in Wellington over Easter weekend.
She has a strong Māori background and the chance to represent her whānau is an opportunity she feels very excited about.

“I love representing my people,” she said. “I feel proud being a successful Māori.”

The talented goal attack or goal shoot expects some challenging competition in Wellington.
“There’s going to be some fierce, physical and mean netball. After playing in last year's nationals, far out, the Aucklanders were so strong and physical.”

Tamaki Makaurau is one of the teams she would like to defeat in the capital.

Going into the Waiāriki trials, she felt nervous.

“It’s a few levels up from my u13s [experience] and you never know what you're up against,” she said. “I’m tall, but this time I wasn’t the only tall girl. There were others, so I had competition.

“To be honest, my fitness wasn’t the best, so I had to work hard in that area. Other than that, it wasn’t too hard.”

Waimarino’s introduction to netball came through her mum, Kelly.
“My mum chucked me in a netball team at Apanui School and I had to play because she was the coach.

“I remember I didn’t even want to play and then I had to play other sports because my mum was involved in some way. My family have all played sports and are very passionate about sport.”

“I started playing when I was 6 and played until I was 10, then stopped for a year. I picked netball back up when I was 11 at intermediate where I started playing seven-against-seven for the first time.

Today, her mum is her biggest inspiration.

“She’s strong, resilient, a hard worker and so much fun,” she said.

“She trains with me, takes me to training and is at every single game that I play. She always makes sure I have everything I need like good nutrition, sleep/rest and physio even when I’m not hurt.

“She’s that mum that always has kai for everyone. She just cares and is always helpful. And that’s for every single sport I play.”

Te Waimarino, who is also a talented touch rugby and rugby player, finds netball the easiest of the codes to play.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have some amazing mentors and coaches since playing proper netball who have made netball not only challenging but enjoyable too. I just want to keep learning and developing.”

Like most netballers, she would love to one day play at the highest level.

For now, though, she just wants to carry on playing and follow in the footsteps of fellow Eastern Bay netballers Charlice Bryce, Monica Falkner, Simmon Wilbore and Khiarna Williams in doing the province proud.