Netball: Athletic teen has talent to burn

Hawke's Bay under-15 netball representative Briana Stephenson in action for her Napier Girls' High School Senior A team last night. Photo/Duncan Brown

Briana Stephenson's father Willy reckons his daughter boasts "BG Williams-type thighs."

He is referring to All Black legend Bryan Williams who played 113 games including 38 tests for the All Blacks between 1970 and '78. Fourteen-year-old Napier Girls' High School Year 10 student Stephenson has no idea who Williams is but those in the know in Hawke's Bay netball circles and other codes Stephenson is involved in have no doubt she has the potential to become as well known as Williams.

It's just a case of in which of her many sports. A Hawke's Bay under-15 netball centre or wing defence for the second season this year, Stephenson has already made her school's senior A basketball, netball and volleyball teams. She also plays touch where her fast sprint times are a big plus and is the Hawke's Bay 14-and-under high and long jump champion with jumps of 1.65m and 5.39m respectively.

There may come a time when she has to choose between athletics and netball. She hopes there doesn't.

"I like both ... one is an individual sport and the other a team sport," Waipukurau's Stephenson explained after helping her NGHS senior A team maintain their unbeaten run last night. Despite her battle with exercise-induced asthma for the first time this year, in a five-season netball career Stephenson, like her Napier Girls' High School teammate and New Zealand Maori Secondary Schools representative Kimiora Poi, was named in three tournament teams this winter.

"I've had one or two asthma attacks when I've been playing but I just try to battle on," Stephenson said.

Being named in the tournament team at the North Island Regional under-15 championships in New Plymouth where her Bay team finished 10th in a 20-team B grade section was a significant achievement. Stephenson was the only B grade player (there were 219 B graders and 179 in a 16 team A grade competition at the champs) to be named alongside three from Auckland, four from Wellington, two from North Harbour and Hamilton and one from Manawatu in the 13-strong team.

Stephenson played every minute of the Bay's seven games at this tournament including two quarters at wing defence. She was also selected in tournament teams in Masterton and Hastings.

Palmerston North was the only tournament where she didn't gain tournament team selection. It wasn't because she was below par, quite the opposite in fact, officials at this event only selected a Year 8 tournament side.

A big fan of Silver Ferns captain and defender Casey Kopua and former Silver Ferns midcourter Temepara Bailey, Stephenson will aim for Hawke's Bay under-17 team selection next year.

Her Napier Girls' High School netball coach, national selector Charissa Barham, said Stephenson is "extremely coachable."

"Briana has tremendous speed from her athletics pursuits and she knows how to use that speed ... she is a lot more court smart now than at the start of the season."

While she is a dedicated trainer the modest Stephenson attributes a lot of her sporting success to the fact it's hereditary as her father and mother Trudi are both more than handy athletes.

Stephenson is hoping to embark on a sports science course at Otago University when she leaves school. It's likely to be around that time she has to make the choice between netball and athletics ... if she hasn't done so already.