As physiotherapist for the Silver Ferns, Sharon Kearney seeks to make the sport as safe as possible, drawing on her University of Otago master' degree. But her entry to elite netball came about through living and working in Dunedin, rather than her studies, Eileen Goodwin writes.
Had Sharon Kearney not moved to Dunedin to study, she believes she would not have reached the pinnacle of her field as physiotherapist for the Silver Ferns.
Her research involves prevention strategies for a common type of netball injury, and she is at the forefront of efforts to make the game safer as it becomes increasingly powerful and high-contact.
But her study played a peripheral role to her netball career at the start.
Pivotal to her involvement with the national side was Otago netball and the team's stalwart coach Georgina Salter, an ''icon'' of the netball world.
''If I hadn't moved to Dunedin, my netball career in the physio world would never have started.''
It kept her involved at the elite level with the sport she loves.
''I am vertically challenged ...
''So, my way of staying involved in the sport that I love, which is netball, was to take on physio roles.''
Ms Kearney was with the Otago side for seven seasons, culminating in the triumphant national championships win over the Sting in 1998.
The ''catalyst'' for her involvement in the national side was working with the national under-21 team, which Mrs Salter coached.
After a season with the under-21 side, Ms Kearney was physiotherapist for the Silver Ferns from 1993 to 1995.
She worked with the under-21 side for another couple of subsequent seasons before returning to the Silver Ferns in 2002.
Her study did not follow a traditional path - her thesis was completed extramurally in Akaroa, fitted around family and work.
She is blunt about the pitfalls of distance study - she would not do it again. She got through thanks to the patience of her tutors, she says.
Ms Kearney (51) took a few years out from her master's degree in physiotherapy, with which she graduated this year.
She left Dunedin in 1998 for Akaroa.
Back in 1990, she moved to the South to run her own physiotherapy business in Roslyn and study at Otago.
She knew the city as she spent 10 years of her childhood in Dunedin.
With a physiotherapy degree under her belt from the Auckland University of Technology, she completed a diploma for graduates before enrolling in a master of physiotherapy degree in 1995.
After completing the first stage of that degree, she left it for a few years while having children and forging her career.
She resumed her studies in 2010.
Her thesis was about an injury that causes misery to netballers, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
''It's a relatively common netball injury and it's a devastating netball injury. It's something that puts netballers out for a year.''
Her thesis looked at physiotherapists' and coaches' knowledge of the injury, and what prevention strategies were used.
''I've used the knowledge I've gained to help mould what I'm doing in Netball NZ in terms of ACL injury prevention strategies.''
The abrupt deceleration in netball increased the risk.
''It's basically a sport made to rupture ACLs.''
Netballers do not face nearly the same injury risk as rugby players, and an ACL rupture in the knee is about as serious as it gets.
As physiotherapist, she had to advise team members whether they should play if there were questions over their fitness.
They could be difficult decisions, and were informed by years of experience - of both the individual player and clinical knowledge - as well as instinct.
''When you make decisions about athletes, you know their injury history.''
Knowledge about ACL had been ''fragmented'', and Ms Kearney is involved in improving co-ordination of injury prevention strategies from the elite level down.
''All of our junior netballers are doing ACL prevention strategies in their warm-up.''
Being coach of the national side meant regular contact with regional franchise physiotherapists to keep in touch with how players are faring in the annual netball competition, the ANZ championship.
During a Netball World Cup year that stepped up a notch to more regular regional contact and visits.
In that respect, her work was similar to Dunedin-based All Blacks physiotherapist Pete Gallagher, and the pair catch up when Ms Kearney is in Dunedin.
''Pete and I have to rely on franchise physios during those campaigns. That's why it's a bit more challenging for us.''
Apart from a limited amount of work with the Tactix team, she steers clear of providing physiotherapy for ANZ championship teams, as she considers it a conflict of interest with the national role.
In the past two decades, netball has become faster, more powerful, and more physical.
''It would be fair to say the male population are much more interested in watching netball now because it's a lot more physical, and probably in their mind exciting, versus princesses playing 20 years ago.''
She owns a Christchurch physiotherapy practice, meaning her professional life is split between athletes at the peak of their sport, and other, often elderly people, who might have hurt themselves and just ''want to get rid of pain''.
