HOCKEY/GOLF: Rep golf suits Jill to a tee

ANENDRA SINGH
It was the early 70s in Taumarunui and, strewth, was it tough being a girl!
All Jill Morgan wanted to do was play sport and become a "land girl" to help her Dad, Russell Morgan, on the farm. There was netball but the then 11-year-old self-confessed tomboy loathed it.
"It was too constricting and I was short," the now 47-year-old Hastings mother of three recalls.
However, she enjoyed tennis, having represented King Country at age-group level. Then in her high school days she teamed up with her sport-savvy father and they became the province's mixed doubles champions.
"It's his greatest delight. He was so chuffed," she says of her father, who had a stranglehold on the King Country men's singles title for "as long as I can remember".
Jill Morgan was spoilt for choices in a sports-mad household. Mum Ngaire (golfer), sister Sue (netball), and brothers Neil (rugby) and Stuart (soccer) all had their preferences.
But there was a problem with tennis. Morgan would have stayed with the code if it hadn't been for those "clicky" Hamiltonians.
Besides, there was the lure of a team sport - hockey - that she had never heard of before she went to Taumarunui High School.
"I came home after PE in third form from playing hockey one day and told Mum I'd found my sport. Mind you, I would have played rugby but I wasn't allowed to play that either," says Morgan.
She impishly recalls playing cricket at Turaki Primary School, where an English lad, Timothy, a new boy, underestimated her prowess.
"This boy came up close to field and intimidate me and I just smashed the ball. It hit him square in the goolies. I'll never forget him," she says, throwing her head back in laughter.
It's unlikely he'll ever forget her, either. Mum Ngaire Hall recalls her resolve via a phone interview from Taumarunui: "I remember she was there all lunchtime one day, batting in cricket, and the boys weren't impressed at all."
Hall, 71, says Morgan has grit but even better hand-eye co- ordination.
Those qualities saw Morgan go on to become a New Zealand women's hockey representative and serve Otago, Canterbury and Hawke's Bay at provincial level.
Her co-ordination came into play again four years ago when, retired from hockey, she reluctantly picked up a set of golf clubs to have a social round with her eldest son, Hayden Smith, 17. She gnawed her way from a 36 handicap to a four handicap and pushed her way into the Hawke's Bay- Poverty Bay women's Interprovincial team.
Morgan is a massage therapist and course designer at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Taradale. Her father dissuaded her from becoming a "land girl".
"Nah, too rough, too rough, he said."
She flirted with the idea of becoming a veterinarian's assistant so she could still help her Dad on the farm. But, like her sporting career, her high school was going to have another major influence on her life.
The PE teacher, Jane Brown (nee Rutherford), a former New Zealand under-23 hockey captain, persuaded her to do a physical education degree. The teacher's husband was a veterinarian and she convinced Morgan it was a hard life.
Morgan, who was in the school's first XI team from fourth form, says: "I idolised Jane. She nurtured the young and always handed over the coaching of the First XI hockey team to someone else and focused on the lower teams."
Brown's impact in training yielded three New Zealand hockey reps in Morgan and Lesley Elliot, who both went to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and Tui Raina, the first to achieve national honours.
By seventh form, Morgan was in the Waikato women's side but was a lousy bench warmer.
"I hated it but everyone should do that as it certainly motivates you to try harder," she says.
In her first year at Otago University, she played for the women's provincial team who shared the K Cup, the symbol of national supremacy, with Hawke's Bay.
"Hawke's Bay were second to none as it was the golden era of hockey in the 1970s."
In the second year, Morgan, who had never travelled overseas, was selected for the New Zealand Universities side which toured Australia with the men's team and were undefeated in two matches against their Aussie counterparts.
About that time in 1978 she met another inspirational person, Marg Hiha, of Napier, who was the Universities coach. In the same year she made the New Zealand team and again toured Australia.
But the following year, while at teachers' college in Christchurch, the selectors dropped her before the 1980 Moscow Olympics. As it turned out, New Zealand boycotted the Games.
"The selectors didn't say why but I know speed was never my forte," says the midfielder, who feels her skills and ability to read a game made up for the lack of pace.
To rekindle her confidence, Morgan turned to Hiha, moving to Hastings and getting a job at Karamu High School. She played for player/coach Hiha's Te Awa Scinde, this time sharing the K Cup a with Canterbury. Her instincts and trust in Hiha paid off. Morgan regained her berth in the national team in 1981.
"It was more satisfying to get back into the side the second time because I realised there's more to life than hockey."
In 1982 she toured Britain and the following year competed at the World Cup in Malaysia ahead of the 1984 LA Olympics. She and former husband Murray Smith, currently a teacher at Lindisfarne College, travelled in LA for three months, living in a utility vehicle, before heading off to Europe for almost a year.
She played for Hawke's Bay and Te Awa Scinde until 1998 and was player/coach for the provincial side for one year. With three children to raise - Hayden, Logan, now 16, and daughter Riley, 13 - Morgan was appointed assistant coach of the New Zealand Academy for three years.
"Kevin Towns was the coach and I learnt so much from a man who has such a fantastic hockey brain."
Morgan then coached the New Zealand President's team, which lost 1-0 to the national side.
"I had no aspirations of becoming a New Zealand coach. I felt it was time for me to move on. It was an instant decision.
"I was getting disgruntled with younger players. It was great to share the knowledge but I couldn't foot it at local level and with my kids it was difficult."
Morgan has no regrets: "Time is not an excuse for me. I found out that when I didn't have time for something then I wasn't passionate enough. I managed life without hockey and I let it go."
Morgan says her parents and her partner, Donna Keeley, a "golfing widow", are very supportive and she still has a great rapport with her former husband Murray Smith.