EMMA WEENINK is the only Wellingtonian to make the New Zealand Secondary Schools netball team, most are from Auckland and the rest from all over the country.
“I was so happy,” says Weenink, who received the good news last week amid a flurry of congratulatory texts from family and friends, and attributes her achievement to good genes and role models.
Five of the current Silver Ferns played in the NZ Secondary Schools team, but Weenink says that doesn’t mean the players are guaranteed success on an international stage.
“But [it helps you] learn what netball is all about.”
The 17 year old Goal Defence has played netball as long as she can remember, and while she prefers to keep school, sport and home life separate they intertwine.
The Year 13 student plays in the Wellington Girls’ College A team, in Premier One, with her sister Molly. In Year 11, Molly plays Goal Shoot which makes home practices fun.
And when Emma’s 15 year old sister isn’t available to practice with, she throws the ball against a wall at home.
Weenink says netball skills run in the family. Her first coach when her family lived in the Cook Islands was her mum.
“I grew up under the influence of (ex Silver Fern) Margaret Mataenga from Rarotonga. She went to New Zealand by herself with this dream and managed to achieve what she wanted. She was committed to being a netballer.”
The 12 players in the Secondary Schools team were selected from 24 trialists who took part in the New Zealand Secondary Schools camp held in Christchurch last week, and will compete in the International Schoolgirls Netball Challenge (May 24-27, Adelaide)  where they will defend the gold medal the team won in 2009.
Other competing teams include School Sport Australia, Aotearoa, Indigenous School Sport
Australia, Bukit Jalil Sports School (Malaysia) and the Pacific Rim Secondary School Team.
But Weenink is looking beyond the Schoolgirls Netball Challenge and has her sights set on becoming a Silver Fern like her idol Margaret Mataenga.