A love of netball runs deep in the Barker family.
Former Hauraki Plains College students Krystal O’Carroll (nee Barker), 44, and Bre Barker, 26, got involved in the beloved sport at around four years old and played throughout college.
It was their mother, Faye Barker, who nurtured them into the game.
“Netball has been in our blood with our mum being so heavily involved,” the sisters said.
It wasn’t just a shared connection to netball the family had, it was also a shared connection to Hauraki Plains College.
That’s because across the years, the Barker ladies all had stints in the role as coach for the Hauraki Plains College A netball team.
Matriarch Faye led the way in 1993, followed by Krystal who co-coached in 2016 and then Bre who is the current coach.
Krystal has now moved out of the area and is now the co-coach and manager of the Pāpāmoa College Premier A netball team.
While there’s a shared love of netball between the sisters, there’s also a fair bit of competitive sibling rivalry.
Last month, Pāpāmoa College went head to head with Hauraki Plains at the UNISS (Upper North Island Secondary Schools) Tournament.
Krystal coined the game “a battle of sister to sister” but in the end, the shooting accuracy from Pāpāmoa was “not enough to take out HPC”, she said.
It was the first year for Hauraki in the B Grade after they won the C Grade last year, Bre said, and their first game of the tournament was against Papamoa which harboured “some sibling competitiveness… probably more from my side”. “Our girls were out to win with the pre UNISS nerves and getting our rhythm, we started off down by four [points] by the end of the first quarter and crawled our way back up to then beat them with the final score being 26-23 to HPC.”
When Faye coached in 1993, she attended the newly introduced UNISS Tournament held at the North Harbour Netball Courts.
“I believe this is the pinnacle of Netball and has been going until present day. Although [I’m] not coaching the team, I love supporting the [HPC A team] girls,” she said.
“So proud of both our girls that have both taken up that role among other things they have done,” she said.
Netball is a treasure to the Barker family, which has now made its way to a third generation member. “[Papamoa] have been having a Netball exchange with HPC for three years now, and this year saw us bringing HPC over to play our Junior A Netball team, which involves my daughter Olivia [granddaughter of Faye]”, Krystal said.
Olivia, who is a year 10 student, will travel to Rarotonga in December to represent her club team called Coastal.
Krystal said she also encouraged Olivia to coach a year 8 team this year and she loved it.
“It taught her a lot about enjoying the game; winning is not everything, and progress can look different and not just on the scorecard.”
It was clear the family was about sharing what they learned in the sport. “We were always made to give back to netball, and this might look like umpiring or helping out. We all are very generous people that only want the best for players and I think that’s something that we have definitely learnt off Mum with all she has given back to the sport.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
