How a visit to ‘Nanny K’ helped Stars skipper fix her shot

The Stars were winning, but their Silver Ferns shooter was falling below par. So she hit the road and reconnected with a mentor.

THE Stars were winning, but their captain wasn’t shooting well. So Maia Wilson made her way from Auckland down to Cambridge, to catch up with ‘Nanny K’.

That’s her affectionate nickname for former Silver Fern Te Aroha Keenan, her old coach at Mount Albert Grammar

School, who now works at St Peter’s School on the outskirts of the south Waikato town. They message each other every week, Wilson said. Sometimes it’s just to have a gossip.

But this trip centred around a serious problem – the fact that the incumbent Silver Ferns goal shoot had gone four games without shooting better than 84 per cent, including three where she failed to even crack 80.

‘‘I had been trying to get down there to her for probably like three weeks prior,’’ Wilson said.

‘‘And it got to a moment where I was like, even for my own peace of mind, I wanted to go and get some help from her, and it did do wonders, and I am really grateful for that.’’

In her next outing, against the Tactix a fortnight ago, Wilson shot 95 per cent as the Stars won in extra time – then gave credit to her mentor.

And while the Stars lost for the second time in three weeks last Sunday, in their first meeting with the Mystics, she shot 89 per cent — a significant improvement on where she had been.

So it’s no surprise that the 23-year-old can’t speak highly enough of the influence Keenan has had on her.

‘‘She has a massive soft spot in my heart and I know it’s reciprocated from her.

‘‘I say nanny, because I want to make her feel old, but she has really been another mother figure. She’s a friend, even without the netball – she’s someone that I can turn to and who will always be there. I would not be here if it was not for her. She has moulded me into the player I am. As I’ve left school, I have grown, and I have adapted, but that started from her.’’

Wilson’s final year at Mount Albert Grammar, 2015, was also Keenan’s, and while she headed to the Pulse in 2016 to begin her professional netball career, her coach went further abroad, to England, which caused a slight panic.

‘‘I remember being like, ‘oh my god, I don’t know what to do – what if my shot doesn’t work?’

‘‘And she was like, Maia you’re getting to a stage now where you just need to be able to deal with it yourself.

‘‘But when she returned I was so stoked that being in Cambridge, she wasn’t far from me.

‘‘Every time I go down there, she makes me coach, and she makes me sit in on their meetings and add into their team culture stuff. It’s never a one-way thing. It’s always both ways.

‘‘I always catch up for dinner with her. To be able to be with someone like that and someone I just am indebted to forever, I just can’t express the amount of love that I have for her.

‘‘Not just as a coach. As a friend, as a mother, as a nanny – because she’s ‘Nanny K’ – she’s someone really special.’’

After reconnecting with Keenan for some on-court work and some video analysis, Wilson said she definitely felt better and more confident in her shot.

But she also knows that the Stars were only a single shot – a last-second miss from Tactix goal attack Te Paea Selby-Rickit – away from following up their five wins in a row to start the season with three losses.

Today they are back at their Pulman Arena home in Takanini to face the Pulse, who handed them their first defeat three weeks ago, knowing they have plenty of work to do to ensure their hot start results in a place in the top three.

It’s a matchup with plenty of resonance for Wilson, who played for the Pulse in the last season of the trans-Tasman netball league, before returning home to Auckland to be a foundation player for the Stars.

But it’s not just special because it’s a match against her former team. It’s special because it’s a reminder of the 2019 grand final between the two teams, which the Pulse won 52-48. And Wilson would love nothing more than to get back to domestic netball’s biggest stage and go one better.

She is the only player to have pulled on the Stars’ purple dress in all five of their seasons in the ANZ Premiership – and, alongside wing attack Mila Reuelu-Buchanan, one of two in the current team, as well as coach Kiri Wills, to have been there in 2019 for their only playoff games.

‘‘I feel really privileged that I was able to be with a franchise at the start,’’ Wilson said.

‘‘I don’t know how many foundation players you actually have within the franchises, if any, so for me to come here and start from the bottom and see the growth to where it is now, particularly in terms of recruiting and the setup and what everyone has done behind the scenes, I feel that has been quite special.

‘‘I’ve been able to really have a hand in that and take a lot of pride in that, as well as being able to play and enjoy myself.

‘‘It has been difficult over the years, I’m not going to lie, having people come in and out. If you look at the teams recently that have won, they’ve been able to consolidate or have minimal changes to their side, and it’s something that we’ve had to deal with every year – sometimes even half the team has gone.

‘‘But I knew I was waiting out for the day that we would be able to get there, and I’ve got so much passion, not only for this franchise, but the community that we stand for. South

Auckland is so beautiful and there’s so many people that love netball – they just need to see representation.’’

‘I would not be here if it was not for her. She has moulded me into the player I am. As I’ve left school, I have grown, and I have adapted, but that started from her.’ MAIA WILSON PAYS TRIBUTE TO FORMER SILVER FERN TE AROHA KEENAN