Riley Piebenga

HALF of Riley Piebenga’s time is consumed with netball and the other half with touch, but during it all she works hard works hard to maintain her academic achievements and to be a role model her juniors can look up to.

The 17yearold deputy head prefect spends most of her free time involved with sport, whether it be training, coaching, umpiring or playing.

Growing up, her mother was a netball coach and spent a lot of time at games, which exposed Riley to the sport early.

She first started playing when she was 6 and accompanied her mum to many games as a way to spend more time with her.

She grew to love the competitive, yet supportive, environment surrounding netball and slowly became more involved.

Not long after starting netball, Riley found a love for touch.

The two sports coincided with each other perfectly, as one season started when the other finished.

She began coaching touch in year 9 and netball in year 10, both of which gave her a better understanding and respect for the games, along with all the work that went into them.

Her hard effort has paid off, as she recently participated in a national netball development camp and has been selected to trial for the NZ U18 touch team which will travel internationally to play in a transtasman tournament.She also found herself in the role of deputy head prefect, which she thoroughly enjoys.

As a junior pupil, she looked up at the senior prefects and felt she could never achieve as highly as they had.

But it turned out those prefects were once juniors just like her.

She strived to be a role model her juniors could look up to, while staying down to earth and connecting with them.

Her discipline and success in academics and sporting is one of the ways that she acts as a reliable leader to them.

She has expectations and obligations to meet as deputy head prefect, but being a good role model was always something she enjoyed working towards.