Basketball success

Congratulations

We would like to celebrate the success of one of our North Island-based tamariki, Kopere Tanoa. He is the son of Terry Tanoa and Tess Petley, eldest grandchild of Ruth and Anton Tanoa, and great-grandson of Lorna Waitai Wanhalla (née Brown) of Ngāti Moki, Taumutu.

Kopere is only 12 but he has already racked up sporting successes. He is a member of the Whanganui U13 and U15 representative touch teams but his main passion is basketball. Kopere’s love for the game is evident in the amount of time he spends training to become stronger, faster and more skilled as a player. His hard work and commitment is paying off.

Father and son are the proud coach and captain respectively, of the unbeatable Wanganui Intermediate School boys’ basketball team, which has been a consecutive winner of the local intermediate A grade competition this year. The team recently travelled to Tauranga to compete in the 2014 NZCT International Aims Games Tournament. Out of the 36 competing teams they finished in sixth place and Kopere was selected for the tournament team.

Kopere is also captain of the Palmerston North U13 Boys Basketball team. They travelled to Dunedin in October, to compete in the National U13 Basketball Tournament. There were 16 competing teams and they came third, and once again, Kopere was selected for the tournament team.

From this tournament and his efforts during the year, he has been selected for the New Zealand Koru Tour to Albury, Australia, to compete in the Australia Country Cup. This is a huge honour and an amazing achievement for a boy his age.

Kopere is an all-rounder, balancing his sporting success with leadership and academic success. He is class leader of his year eight class at Wanganui High School and he is also a house captain. He will be attending Cullinane College next year, as a joint recipient of the 2015 Junior Sports Scholarship.

Kopere is a very humble and talented young man who is an excellent role model for his two younger brothers, Kalem-Billy 10, and Jacey, eight, who are both following in his footsteps. He coaches both junior touch and basketball teams in order to give back to the sport that has given him so much. His advice to other Ngāi Tahu rangatahi is to work hard, never give up and chase your dreams. He has a quote on his wall, from his favourite basketball player, Kevin Durant. It says, ‘Hard work beats talent – when talent fails to work hard.’

Well done Kopere. You are our taonga. We are very proud of you and your whānau for the love and support they give you. We wish Kopere well this month as he travels to Palmerston North to compete against other touch rugby teams from Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Horowhenua and Wellington, in the Junior IPS Tournament.