former Silver Fern Captain former Wellington representative former PIC Premier 1 player/coach Silver Ferns Assistant Coach Vice-President PIC
How did you come to play for PIC?
When I moved to Wellington, I really only knew five people here, and both Marghie and Rita were already playing for PIC. It seemed inevitable that I would play in a club where I had friends and the club itself had begun to develop itself as a major entity within Wellington netball.
What were some of the highlights for you?
Every win that PIC has achieved, we have deserved. Because of that, they have served as morale boosters, lifted our own standards of play and kept our club in touch with both national and international developments in netball.
The very nature and depth of this Club allows for great variation and creativity with regards to team selections. Within PIC I have been privileged to play alongside some of its most experienced players these include Martha Taru and Alisa Tonu'u.
When PIC travels, often it entails an entourage. This was particularly evident during the national club championship games. Our Premier 1 (1) entourage included players, coach(es), manager(s), physiotherapist(s), chef, the President, infants, grandmothers and partners. The team was always well looked after and supported with everybody playing a part in the care and wellbeing of all PIC members. Being able to take our children with us knowing that they were safe enabled coaches and players to focus on the task at hand.
As a club, PIC is still unequalled amongst any other regional club. This club takes pride in pursuing excellence in netball whilst always maintaining its very strong Pacific and Church origins, and, embraces the cultures of all its members. So within PIC you will find a whole range of relationships; friends, family, and future family.
The administrative arm of PIC is both dynamic and forthright. There is a rich resource of talented women who attend to the needs of the club. Sometimes, it requires interactions with external organisations; sometimes it requires a high level of diplomacy and on other occasions the authoritative approach is adopted. So often I am told exactly what is required of me.
What is your vision for PIC?
PIC has already proven its ability to develop top NZ netballers. The club will need to continue developing our strategies, techniques and thinking so that we remain a premier club. Our winning combinations have not just been about the wealth of talented players that we have but they are also about the expertise of our coaches. I believe that PIC can and will provide top level coaches in Wellington as well as NZ. While being the best has always been our vision, it will only be meaningful if we continue to celebrate being the Pacific Island Church Netball Club, for it is our Pacific flavour that holds us unique from all others.

former Secretary and Coach of PIC player 1981 - present
How did you come to play for PIC?
My first year in PIC was back in 1981. I pretty much followed my nose, I came with Susie Tearikiau to training one night, ended up trialing and I've been with the club ever since. I was a defence player in Rarotonga for Takuvaine and that's always been my playing position for PIC.
I drove Kopu up the wall back then. I was young and new from Raro, so I didn't really take things seriously. While my team was training on court I used to be busy cycling around the courts. When we won our grade and got promoted things changed, I started to get slightly serious and started to behave. PIC had one Prem 1, one Prem 2 and a Prem 3 team. I had started out in the Senior grades and worked my way up.
What have been the highlights for you?
Winning the grades was always awesome. Every team I've played for throughout the grades has won their grade. The most rewarding, I would have to say, was in 1997. I had decided at the beginning of the year that it was going to be my last year to play so I dedicated everything to that season, I trained hard and I played hard. It was a wonderful win and we deserved it. The older I get the more I understand how performance counts.
Going to church at PIC. You know I'm Catholic and we don't do things like the tatau, it's really something foreign to me, that is until I joined this club. Aunty Anna gave me my tatau and then said, "Mama, you have to lead off, you're the bilingual one of our group". Seeing others tatau was quite different from having to actually do it myself, but by the second time around I was okay. Watching PIC win the Bendon Cup in Auckland in 1990 was fantastic.
When PIC won we all won. We only had a few supporters. Hearing the cheers and feeling this special spirit, I don't think Wellington or New Zealand netball have seen anything like that before. It was a good feeling. They were playing on court and we were all there, in the stands but really we were all on court. Julie Wilson coached the team that year.
The Ultimate Challenge Games that we used to have at the Wellington Club rooms. That helped strengthen our own family feeling as well as interacting with other clubs like St Catherine's. We need to do those kinds of things again. Makes us strong and develops relationships with others.
Just seeing us where we are today, at the top of netball in Wellington. We had to work hard to get here. The Association wouldn't give it to us, they never gave us the time of day, so we had to make it happen for ourselves, we had to make Wellington realise that we had the strength and talent to get to the top. If we didn't do that then we probably wouldn't get any recognition from the Association.
Winning the Swiss Maid Championship helped open the doors for us, because since that time we have provided Wellington with its largest numbers of representative players at top level. Look at the Silver Ferns, since Marghie there have always been PIC players there. We've consistently produced quality players, and coaches.
Others see Noeline and the other girls as New Zealand or Wellington but for us they are always PIC first. You can hear people at the games saying, "Oh, she plays for PIC!" Wellington has to give us that recognition. If PIC wasn't here in Wellington, what would the Association look like? If PIC didn't bring together and shape all those top players, what would the competition look like? That's what I mean when I talk about recognition. Our club has given a lot to Wellington netball.
What is your vision for PIC?
That we carry on that Pacific Island Church Netball Club tradition. Island people amongst the top. That PIC develop as a source of professional players and administrators, this we've already started. That's the meaning of PIC, bringing different sportswomen together. We've moulded all these papa'as into Islanders. PIC has still got lots more to offer Wellington netball and New Zealand. To live on, have another 45 years and continue playing and working in the PIC style.
What makes PIC special?
It's our way to serve by giving. We give to our players, to our coaches and our managers. We give them whatever we have and we give it with love. Our players are the top, and so are our coaches and managers. This is the Pacific Island spirit of service, the giving. We have to keep giving the best that we have so that our members will go out and give the best that they are to others.