Basketball: Hawea Vercoe's daughter in NZ U16s

The late Hawea Vercoe was recognised as a future leader. Now it appears his daughter, Moerangi, is taking up that mantle through sport.

The 15-year-old has just been selected to represent New Zealand in the under-16 girls basketball team who will compete in a transtasman competition in Tamworth, New South Wales.

It's the first time the Rotorua Girls' High School student has made a national basketball team.

"I've made the development squads a few times and playing in the rep teams since I was eight. Basketball was never my first sport, actually. When I first started playing, my first sport was tennis and I was into gymnastics. So I just wanted to try something new and I started playing basketball."

Moerangi said she enjoyed teams sports and keeps herself busy playing volleyball, netball and basketball for her school. But the Ngati Awa descendant said her favourite sport was basketball. "I just like the aggression and the whole game is just fun."

Like her father, Moerangi is a natural leader who has her sights on her future.

"Basketball, I want to make the Tall Ferns or like my cousin Taki [Te Koi] go on a basketball scholarship to the States. She's the ex-head girl of our school and is at the Dominican University of California. She's just graduated."

With her goal to try for a scholarship it has meant some of her other sports have had to be put on the back burner.

"This year I had to [taper back what I played] because I was in the senior A volleyball and senior A basketball. So I kind of had to choose my priorities and basketball was my priority."

At only 1.79m, Moerangi isn't the tallest on the basketball court but makes up with it in speed and accuracy. "I've been practising my shooting and stuff because my coach for Rotorua, told me since I'm not going to be growing I need to work on my [shooting]. When I was younger I was one of the biggest in my team but now I'm like fourth-shortest out of 20 girls at the New Zealand camp. So I've been practising my shooting and my defence."

It's not all fun and games for Moerangi. She also has a goal of becoming a doctor.

"I want to be a doctor. At this stage it will either be general practice or maybe a surgeon."

With Moerangi still only in Year 11, the talented student has plenty of time to work on not just her shooting but perhaps becoming one of Rotorua's great doctors.