RUGBY: It's a hoot says winner Boden

SHANE HURNDELL
It's been nine days since Daphne Boden won New Zealand Rugby Union's Volunteer of the Year award but the buzz is still there.
"Yeah I walked into one of the classrooms at Haumoana School the other day and the teacher told the kids to give me a clap ... it's been quite a hoot," Boden said.
And it's a "hoot" the Clive Rugby Club's junior convenor fully deserves. A read of her nomination for the award confirms it and so does her bubbly enthusiasm for Hawke's Bay junior rugby.
Because the Haumoana mother of five children aged two to 16 isn't just her club's junior convenor she is also the chairperson of the Napier-Hastings Intercity Junior Rugby Board. In between all her rugby commitments she fits in her job as a school bus driver on the Haumoana-Te Awanga run clocking up 52kms a day, five days a week.
"Yes it is a bit of a juggling act. I'm lucky I've got my hubby Terry and eldest daughter Cara to help me out at home," she said.
"It was great that Terry was able to come with me to the Steinlager Awards in Auckland. So often during the season he's at home while I'm at the club particularly on Thursdays and Saturdays when he has to wait until I get home before he can go to trainings or after-match get togethers," Boden said referring to the fact Terry plays for Clive's Hawke's Bay championship-winning senior fours side.
Boden, 42, is in her ninth season of behind the scenes toil at the Clive club. Last year she played a key role in a 38 percent increase in the number of junior players at the club and received the club trophy for the member displaying outstanding service.
"Getting three fifth grade teams catering for four and five-year-old players was a big boost for the club last year," she said.
A former hockey coach and former gymnast and soccer ("I'll say that quietly," she laughs) player, Boden was responsible for introducing Hawke's Bay's Tennyson Tuis NPC women's rugby coach Albie Hawea to coaching.
"Our club didn't have a 12th grade team and because Albie's son Shannon was in the team I asked him to take it. Look what he's done since then - our colts team, women's side and the Tuis," she boasts.
"Several players from that 12th grade team are now in our Colts side ... once you've played for our junior teams you become pretty committed to our club," she said.
Boden said the Clive club's secretary Myles Girvan and the Taradale pair of Adele Wakely, the 2004 winner of the New Zealand Rugby Union's Volunteer of the Year award, and her son Basil Wakely, have been huge influences on her.
"Because Adele collected the award at the last function I didn't expect it. I just went up with the aim of enjoying the night.
"I found it a little bit daunting but we were fortunate to have Stu Wilson at our table and he broke the ice and made everyone feel at ease," said Boden referring to the entertaining former All Black captain.
"Getting my photo taken with All Black star Dan Carter was just as big a highlight as receiving the big trophy," she said.
A keen horse rider, when she can fit it in around all her other commitments, Boden has no intention of easing up with her voluntary work for junior rugby in the Bay.
"I want to keep getting kids off the couch and into sport so the roll continues," she said before heading off to prepare for the first weigh-ins of the season which begin next week.