Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Kohana Kauika-Rameka toku ingoa. I am a Year 7 student at Miller Avenue School in Paeroa.
Two years ago, I started to enjoy playing touch. My pāpā Greg Hine came to our training after long days at work to show us some touch skills from his referee’s perspective. He would tell me how proud he was when I tried to learn new skills. The aroha he put into helping us is the reason I love the sport so much!
I’ve now played rugby, netball, basketball, rugby league, golf, tennis, tried hockey, soccer, cricket and every other sport I can find, because that season of touch gave me the courage to give everything a go!
My whānau are huge supporters of everything I do. If I decided to do competitive plate stacking, my dad would do a coaching course and mum would get straight online to find any resources to help.
Last year I made it to the Thames Valley U12 touch team. When I told my pāpā, he hugged me and said, “I’m proud of you, keep up the good mahi.” I hope that all young girls get to hear this from the people they look up to.
We trained right up to Christmas, then after a short break for whānau time, came back together in January for our noho (extended training course). We stayed in Manaia and did a fundraiser selling sausages sizzles outside Four Square in Coromandel (a big thank you to Four Square for sponsoring the kai) and we did a ‘Have my back’ campaign where we got whānau and friends to sponsor us and we put their names on our backs and completed four challenges: 1400 passes, 14 km run, 1400 x 3-man drive and 14 acts of kindness to represent 14 people in our team. We also did Grocery Hamper raffles.
We competed in tournaments in Waikato, Auckland and Rotorua. We learnt heaps as a team, and I learnt a lot about myself. After the first tournament I was asked by my coach Edward Mikaere to be the Vice-Captain. I was really proud that he saw something in me. He helped to bring out even more from me as a player and as a strong kōtiro (girl).
We got stronger as a team. I built friendships that I know will carry on for many years.
All this led up to our final tournament, Rowdys Tournament in Rotorua. My whānau were there managing, setting up gazebos, cooking dinner, showing our team awesome skills, taking photos and cheering us from the sideline.
Having whānau around giving you positive kōrero means heaps when your energy is low. After hard games, we made it to the mixed grade finals.
Although I didn’t make the final four for the final game, they worked really hard to get the final try. Our whole team ran out and jumped in the air. We then went to the other team to remind them that they were good and they played really well. The best feeling was performing a haka to honor our opponents, supporters, whānau and ourselves. They then performed a haka for us.
We received medals and a framed certificate, but nothing felt better than when we all ran to hug each other at the end of the game. We did a haka for our U14 Thames Valley team as some of our players had siblings there. We wanted to share the feeling of having so much support.
We’d given up most of our holidays to train, our friends and whānau had supported us all the way, and that final team huddle at the end of our last game was for all of us.
The only thing that meant more to me than that huddle was coming home, going around to see my pāpā and show him that we had done it. I had taken all the things he’d shown me to the field, left all that I had on the field, and brought back a taonga to share with him.
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