League talents just what the doctor ordered
Kelston’s Zion Ioka eyes medical career but also has bright future on sporting field
Zion Ioka has his life mapped out away from the sporting field. The 17-year-old Kelston Boys’ High School deputy head boy wants to be a doctor, following in the footsteps of another top Samoan scholar/sportsman Jeremy Stanley, who did just that in the mid-1990s.
And Ioka, the eldest of nine, is doing well enough in his chosen sport of rugby league to be giving himself some serious options when he leaves school at the end of the year.
The captain of the Kelston First XIII, he has been in sparkling form in the Wednesday afternoon CRL competition, scoring plenty of points and laying on tries in victories over Westlake Boys’ High, Massey High and Henderson High.
Things did not pan out quite so well against Western Springs last week when Kelston suffered its first loss of 2014 and Ioka missed a few shots. But off days afflict all kickers. Ioka started playing league at age 6 for the junior club New Lynn Stags. Now he turns out for the Glenora Bears on Saturdays.
The premiers have got their eye on him, as have the Warriors. He is already in the club’s development programme, and is learning about the correct nutrition for athletes. He looks up to Shaun Johnson and Cooper Cronk.
Goalkicking is a key plank of Ioka’s game, and he gets in a lot of practice.
“I live just down the road from Kelston Intermediate, so I’m always down there kicking goals.
“They’ve built fences up there, so I’ve learned to climb over them!” quips Ioka.
Last season he was a key part of the Kelston First XIII that won the national schools title and was runnerup in Auckland. He kicked 41 goals in the latter competition, and found himself named in the national merit squad.
So it is league in the winter and touch and tag in the summer, where he has reached national under 17s and 16s honours in both.
He admits he is going to have to find the right balance next year when he enters medical school at the University of Auckland, but he has help to achieve those goals.
“I’ve got a lot of support from Mr [Brent] Semmons [the Kelston director of sport] and other teachers and my other mates.”
He was junior dux and is one of the top senior scholars now, maths and biology being his favourite subjects.
A devout Mormon, Ioka tries not to play or train on Sundays.
“Sunday is my rest day. I’ll come home from church and plan for my week. I’ll have a set timetable. I sit down with my parents and try and get everything in.”
This is a personal decision, he emphasises, and not necessarily a hard and fast rule, a la another famous West Aucklander, Michael Jones.
“There’s been heaps of clashes [of scheduling], but people help out to make sure I don’t have to train or play on Sundays. I’ve got more lenient since I’ve been at high school.
“It’s getting harder not to play and I have played a few games on Sundays now,” says Ioka.
He cites the example of devout Mormon Will Hopoate, who plays on Sundays in the NRL for the Parramatta Eels.
Ioka will line up for Kelston in this afternoon’s final Pool A college league clash at Avondale College.