Volleyball hopes soar for Napier’s Daniel Smith, Darrius Ngarotata-Pauling

Napier Boys' High School volleyball hopefuls Daniel Smith (left) and Darrius Ngarotata-Pauling, under the watchful eye of coach Laina Samia. Photo / Warren Buckland

Two Napier teenagers are off to Thailand in August as national Māori volleyball representatives with hopes of overseas scholarships and professional careers in one of the world’s fastest-growing sports.

The two are Year 11 Napier Boys’ High School pupils Daniel Smith, a 15-year-old chosen in the New Zealand Māori Under 20 men’s team, and Darrius Ngarotata-Pauling, 16, in the Under 17 team.

The selections came from a camp at Mount Maunganui during the school holidays. The fundraising is on and Smith already has a part-time job in a restaurant kitchen.

They are the only two from Hawke’s Bay in the Aotearoa Māori Poirewa teams, which include two female teams of the same age groups and which will each train and play four games at the Federation of International Volleyball Centre in Bangkok on August 18-27.

There are currently no other national sides in the two age groups, but the students each see the trip as part of a pathway to scholarships abroad and international futures, having all but now abandoned their previous sporting ambitions having, as Pauling says, “found” volleyball less than two years ago.

Smith was a Hawke’s Bay age group basketball representative and Ngarotata-Pauling had played rugby, including one game for the school’s Under 15 side, normally the start of the pathway to the first fifteen.

“I didn’t even know volleyball was a sport,” he said, but, getting a little “bored” with rugby, he took the chance, with Smith, when they saw a “notice” at school.

Each about 1.85 metres tall, they quickly adapted to the small-court sport, in which Smith says their height becomes more of an advantage the further they go in the game.

The selections come at a time when the pathway has opened up again after the Covid-19 years, with the men’s and women’s premier national sides set for trips to Chile this year. Volleyball is an Olympic Games sport.

Senior women’s team the Volley Ferns will arrive in Chile on June 26 for a series of matches which will finish by July 7 and will be followed by men’s side the Volley Blacks, on July 12-22.

The national inter-provincial championships are to be held in Taradale’s Pettigrew Green Arena on King’s Birthday weekend (June 3-5), and zone and national leagues will be held later in the season.

In Hawke’s Bay, the pathway has been opened further with the expansion of facilities available at the PGA and at the Mitre 10 Sports Park in Hastings, and the part being played by coach, national representative, Central Hauwhenua VNL-winning player, physiotherapist and former Napier Girls High School pupil Laina Samia.

A daughter of Hawke’s Bay and New Zealand volleyball guru and former NBHS physical education teacher Alani Samia, who died from abdominal cancer two years ago, she has been coaching the two teens since they started, and the selection is a “great opportunity for them to grow further”.

“They both have a massive drive to perform in volleyball, so playing in international fixtures will give them good insight into high-performance volleyball and future possibilities,” she said. “It’s a privilege for the boys to be able to go away while representing their whanau for Aotearoa Māori Poirewa.”