Juggling elite sport and five kids – meet the amazing Team Leota
Superleague netball star and former Sale Shark prove the toughest of family balancing acts can work, writes
There are few better examples of athletes who have reframed the notion that parenthood is incompatible with a career in elite sport than Liana and Johnny Leota. With five children – including four under the age of 10 – the captain of netball Superleague outfit Severn Stars and the former Sale Sharks rugby player jokingly insist they have other ideas for what they have christened “Team Leota”.
“We both come from big families,” explains Liana. “I’m one of eight siblings and Johnny is one of six. Johnny wants a touch rugby team but at the moment, five is where we’re at!”
A tight-knit family philosophy has always been central to the Leotas. Liana and Johnny were just 18 and 19 respectively and starting out on their sporting journeys when they had their first child, Brooklyn, while living in their native New Zealand.
The couple’s eldest daughter was their “driving force” for carving out successful careers in sport, which would see Johnny capped 20 times for Samoa and Liana become a Commonwealth gold medallist for the Silver Ferns in 2010.
The 36-year-old remains one of the most recognisable players in the Superleague, having recently captained an All Stars side against England for January’s Legends Series, in a career that has been shaped rather than inhibited by motherhood. She made the decision to join Johnny five years after he signed for Sale in 2011, with Torres (eight), Karney (six), Frankie (four) and baby Mika (now three) all gradually expanding the Leota clan. “Here, athletes wait until the end of their career before having children, but you can balance both,” insists Liana.
“You definitely need support networks, but it’s not unachievable if you put your mind to it. In our country, there’s a very social aspect of family. Everyone will bring their children to training and have them sitting on the courtside.”
It is a habit Liana is loathe to give up. For the past two seasons, baby Mika has made the bi-weekly, five-hour return trip to Severn Stars training in either Worcester or Gloucester from the family’s home in the Manchester area.
Johnny, meanwhile, juggles his full-time player liaison role at Sale Sharks with school pick-ups, factoring in Liana’s busy schedule.
Until recently, that was on top of homeschooling duties for her other three children, which Liana modestly describes as “quite a balancing act”.
“She’s incredible,” Johnny says of his wife. “Liana does most of the stuff around the house with the kids where she takes on a lot of the schoolwork, as well as her training. I pick up the pieces. Her dedication and the sacrifice she makes for her sport is why she is where she is.” He pauses, trying to keep a straight face. “I probably don’t tell her this enough,” he says, bursting into fits of laughter.
His wife’s work ethic came to the fore when the pandemic and its disproportionate impact on female team sport became obvious last year. So evident was the injustice of Premiership rugby teams like Sale resuming training in early June, while Superleague netballers were locked out of training venues for months, that Liana took matters into her own hands.
“I ended up going to rugby
training because I needed to be doing stuff to keep fit and active,” she says. “At the time, netball couldn’t offer me that. The funniest thing was that Johnny had to teach me how to tackle, because they had a few contact sessions where I had to sit out and watch because I had no experience. So Johnny taught Brooklyn and I how to tackle each other.”
Johnny openly admits he is trying to tempt his 18-year-old, netball-loving daughter into rugby. It is a timely ambition considering Sale launched their first women’s team this season, but Johnny is realistic about letting Brooklyn find her own path.
“Brooklyn has been a rock for us,” concedes Johnny. “When both of us had training, she was always our fallback. As weird as it sounds – we’re the adults – but she’d always be up for looking after the kids. We tell her all the time that she’s got life skills that not many 18-year-olds have. Some of the boys at Sale, when they’re struggling with one child, ask me, ‘How does she do it?’ Brooklyn is looking after four of them!”
The couple brim with pride as they recount their eldest’s plans – her desire to return to New Zealand and the cherished family unit that was ever-present in her childhood, before weighing up the option to pursue a university degree in the UK, where she has permanent residency.
It is a luxury Liana, despite having lived and played elite netball in England since 2016, is yet to enjoy.
Johnny has indefinite leave to remain after banking residency through an elite sport visa, which athletes can use as a route to settlement in the UK, but the option is only available to athletes who earn at least £35,800 a year. That remains a mere fantasy for foreign netballers in a semiprofessional league such as Liana, who was once forced to prolong a family Christmas break in New Zealand by a whole month.
She nearly missed the start of the Superleague season while she tried to extend her temporary visa status. It is an issue the Netball Players Association has become aware of. “I’m on nearly nine years of different visas and I can’t even stay in the country,” says Liana, frustration in her voice.
“I’ve just gone back to a spouse visa because it lasts two years, yet my husband and children are on indefinite leave to remain in the UK. We play different sports but, at the end of the day, we’re both athletes and the treatment is so different. Rugby has the support and sponsorship that netball doesn’t have.”
Yet the Leotas remain firmly united in teaching their morals and values to their children. “Things we were taught growing up – like respect and putting family first,” explains Liana, as Johnny nods, adding: “That’s probably why we’ve got as far as we have in both our sports.”
‘She’s incredible. She does most stuff around the house with the kids, and school work, as well as her training. I pick up the pieces’