Extra work pays off for rising star

Hannah Matehaere trains at the Otago Girls’ High School gymnasium yesterday as she prepares to...
Hannah Matehaere trains at the Otago Girls’ High School gymnasium yesterday as she prepares to head to Australia with the New Zealand under-16 girls basketball team. Photo: Gregor Richardson.
Hannah Matehaere is trading her blue and gold singlet for a black and white one this year.

The 14-year-old heads to Perth with the New Zealand under-16 girls basketball team on Thursday, where she will play at the Australian state championships.

It came with the trade-off of missing playing for Otago this year. The under-17 New Zealand championships clash with the trip. The 1.78m guard is excited to get away and represent her country for the first time.

Having been through  selection camps, she eventually made the final squad, which is coached by Otago-based  Natalie Visger.

The team trained once a month in Auckland. While that could pose challenges, she said the team was beginning to click.

"In the past two camps I think we’ve really come together and we know the strengths of each of us. It’s been good," she said.

The daughter of Dunedin basketball coach and former player Brent Matehaere,  she began playing at the earliest age possible — she estimated about 7 — and started in the Otago representative programme at 9.

A year 10 pupil at Otago Girls’ High School, she played for both the junior and senior A teams, having done so since arriving at the school.

She said her father had been a strong influence on her and got her into the sport.

"I train with him a lot. He’s definitely helped me improve on my skills and shooting.

"I’ve always enjoyed sports since a young age and basketball and I just clicked."

An athletic player who excelled on defence and liked to push the ball on offence, she put plenty of work into her game.

On top of her two weekly school trainings, she was required to work out twice a week for her New Zealand team, while also doing extra work with her father and sometimes joining in with the Otago Gold Rush team.

That work is obviously paying off.

Around it all she found time to compete in surf lifesaving and athletics.

But it was in basketball that she had her sights set on bigger things.

"I would like to get a scholarship [to a United States university] in basketball, but ultimately play for the Tall Ferns."

She had a pretty simple method of how she would get there too.

"Keep training, keep working."

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