World Cupwinning coach a mentor to many generations
TAINI Jamison was short of stature, but she looms large as a towering figure in the history of New Zealand netball.
Coach of the first national team to win the sport’s world cup, Jamison remains the Silver Ferns’ most successful coach. From 20 tests during her four years as coach, she chalked up 18 wins, a 90% success rate.
Both Jamison and the 1967 team she coached to glory are inductees of the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
Taini Maremare Royal was born in Rotorua on February
23, 1928, of Nga¯ti Raukawa, Nga¯ti Tamatera¯ and Nga¯i Tahu ancestry. Her father, Te Rangia¯taahua Kiniwe¯ Royal, a decorated Ma¯ori Battalion veteran, was a surveyor for the Ma¯ori Land Court.
She attended Rotorua High and Grammar School before finishing her schooling at Wellington Girls’ College after her father was posted to the capital. She studied at Wellington Teachers’ Training College and joined the highly influential Nga¯ti Po¯neke Young Ma¯ori Club.
After qualifying as a teacher, she moved several times before settling in Horohoro, near Rotorua, where she met her future husband, Tom Jamison, the coach of a local basketball team.
Mr Jamison died soon after they married, following an accident on the basketball court. She never remarried.
Jamison moved to a post at Malfroy Primary School in Rotorua, where she taught until she retired.
A skilled netballer when younger — Jamison played for the national championshipwinning Rotorua team and played for the North Island team on three occasions — her playing career ended in 1959.
During the next decade, she coached Rotorua to several title successes, building a CV which made her a logical choice to become the third person to coach the New Zealand team.
The team’s target was the
1967 World Cup.
This was the second international tournament: New Zealand lost to Australia by a single goal in the inaugural event.
After a strenuous 10day buildup camp in Christchurch, the Silver Ferns set off to Perth wellprimed to challenge. Their preparation paid off as the team swept all before it.
A 4139 win over South Africa was their closest match before the final, which was a confident 4034 win over Australia.
Jamison retained the reins for the 1971 World Cup, held in Jamaica, and took the team on an exhaustive and exhausting pretournament fourmonthlong world tour.
After a month in England and 10 days acclimatising in Trinidad before the event, the Silver Ferns were a weary team and ended up losing to Australia.
Jamison departed the coaching role in 1972 and was presented with the Netball
New Zealand Service Award that year.
Her indelible contribution to the sport was recognised many more times in subsequent years.
Jamison was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to netball in 1994, she was inducted into the Ma¯ori Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and made a life member of Netball New Zealand in 2010.
In 2008 came arguably the ultimate honour, when Netball New Zealand commissioned and launched the Taini Jamison Trophy, for competition between the Silver
Ferns and international teams other than Australia.
Jamison remained involved for nearly all of her adult life with Netball Rotorua, and was its president from 1981 to 2001.
She died in Rotorua on April 28, aged 95.
Players and coaches paid tribute to an effervescent personality who merited the overused accolade of icon.
‘‘She had a strong desire to give back to the game and she did that for her entire life,’’ Netball New Zealand chief executive Jennie Wyllie said.
‘‘We were all beneficiaries of it. There are so many people in our game that have been touched by her, predominantly through her coaching, but her service, particularly in the Rotorua area, has just been phenomenal.’’
Silver Ferns coach Dame
Noeline Taurua had a close relationship with Jamison.
‘‘I always say once a coach, always a coach. When you walk in the room, she’s very clear about what she wants and how she wants to play the game.’’
Taurua said Jamison would be remembered for ‘‘her manner, her approach, her wisdom, her openness to share and the love that she had for our game’’. — Agencies