Hākinakina Iwi Kainga: Basketball NZ recognises Rotorua’s Darrell Pene with long service award

Sue and Darrell Pene put in countless hours of work behind the scenes to help basketball thrive in Rotorua. Photo / NZME

OPINION

Hākinakina community news is a weekly update on our own local community sports and athletes.

Basketball New Zealand hosted its annual awards over the weekend and there was a notable Rotorua presence.

The Pene name has been long associated with basketball, including for more than 30 years in Rotorua, and this was recognised at the awards in Wellington on Saturday.

Darrell Pene and wife Sue have been involved in the game since the 1980s and Darrell’s efforts have now been recognised by the sport’s national body with a Long Service Award.

Basketball NZ reports that in his more than 40 years of service to basketball, Darrell (aka Rangitihi) Pene has worn many hats - coach, referee, committee member, social player, coach educator and court convener at weekly leagues and tournaments.

He coached his first team at Newlands College in Wellington, going on to take the Whanganui High School girls’ team to the National Championships and later the second-ever Under-16 Nationals - which Basketball NZ says included future Olympian and US Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player Megan Compain.

Arriving in Rotorua in 1992, Basketball NZ says Darrell coached at Rotorua Lakes High, John Paul College, Rotorua Boys’ High and Rotorua Girls’ High. He took the John Paul College girls’ team to runners-up at the nationals.

After a stint as assistant coach to Mata Cameron, Darrell was appointed as the head coach to the Junior Tall Ferns in 2007. A highlight was winning the Main Event Tournament in Las Vegas.

Basketball is New Zealand’s fastest-growing sport, according to Sport New Zealand, and continues to be a hugely popular winter code in our town. The Rotorua Basketball Association says the sport is bursting at the seams and, at the close of school registrations, 23 teams were on a waiting list that may yet grow longer.

Darrell has played a huge role in developing the basketball community.

The code has a near-monopoly on winter Southern Trust Sportsdrome bookings. Over the years it has picked up slots as other sports moved on and now uses the facility six days a week between club and school fixtures, as well as weekend fixtures for the representative teams and training camps.

It is also a challenge to find spare dates for regular school national championships and the growing Māori National Tournament. The Rotorua Basketball Association provides for a huge part of our community from health, pride, economic, cultural and social perspectives.

You do start to wonder where basketball might be in Rotorua if it wasn’t for community legends like Darrell.

Next time you see him courtside, let him know how grateful you are for this amazing service to basketball and our community.

- For your community sports news and stories, please contact Crispian.stewart@eves.co.nz