The Otago touch player has had to overcome several serious knee injuries just to get back out on the field, and her World Cup campaign was squashed last year due to illness.
Maybe that is what made pulling on the black singlet at the transtasman series against Australia — and finally playing at home — so special.
Wheeley, 25, played a crucial part in the Touch Blacks mixed team’s tournament in Christchurch at the weekend, the first time New Zealand had played at home since 2018.
She was in good company: Otago players Charli Sinclair and Hamish Faulks represented the women’s and men’s sides respectively, Toni Wall served as the men’s manager, and Damian Burden coached the mixed team.
While the mixed team did not walk away as series winners, they won the opening test 8-7, the first time a Kiwi team had won the opening test on home soil since 2013.
"It was pretty unreal for us to win," Wheeley said.
"It started us off on a high. The boys were scooping through and you don’t really do that against the Aussies too much.
"It was very cool to experience that."
That game will long remain a highlight for Wheeley, as will playing in front of her friends and family, playing on Anzac Day and the team culture.
But for Wheeley, just being out on the field playing the game she loves stood above it all.
"For me, personally, to be able to play a couple of games — because last year at the World Cup I got really, really sick so I couldn’t play, I could only play two games — so it was nice to be able to play and actually be fit and able.
"That was just a highlight for me."
Wheeley hailed Burden’s "passionate and supportive" leadership throughout the tournament.
"He has a lot of trust in the players and belief and that reflected down to all of us," Wheeley said.
"It made us believe that we could actually do it because he sort of set those standards for us — he’s just super supportive."
Burden praised Wheeley as a resilient and committed team member, and he loved getting to stand on the sideline to see her shine.
"She has overcome three major knee injuries to represent New Zealand at the highest level and she has had an unwavering sense of determination through it all," Burden said.
"On the field, she never takes a backward step and is known for her physical defence on the 7m line.
"It was awesome to see her play in front of her proud parents too ... getting the chance to play against the best in the world in Aotearoa, and in the South Island, is very cool for her."
Wheeley, who is a teacher at Bayfield High School, has also starred for Otago this season, and scooped the Otago female player of the year and the open women’s leadership awards recently.
