Netball: Juggling life big task for hotshot

By RICHARD BOOCK

If prizes were to be awarded for netball's most organised player, Silver Fern utility Adine Harper would surely be the frontrunner.

The 21-year-old will spearhead the Southern Sting's national league title defence against the Canterbury Flames in Invercargill tonight before putting the finishing touches to her preparations for New Zealand's Tri-Nations campaign in Australia.

In between, she is also juggling a double major in law and physical education at Otago University, and trying to find time to spend with her boyfriend, All Black star Jeff Wilson.

"It's sort of crazy at times, especially when everything's happening at once, but somehow it always seems to fit together," she said in Dunedin yesterday. "If I had to put my finger on one thing that's made it work, it's being organised - even to the extent of keeping your room tidy. You just have to manage your time well or else you end up with chaos."

This, she agrees, might also apply to her netball.

Earmarked for test honours as a teenager, the former Taranaki player raised eyebrows initially when she was named in the New Zealand under-21 team as a 16-year-old, but has not looked back since, representing the Academy side and being called into the Silver Ferns for their world championship year in 1999.

"Organisation is just as important in top-level sport," she said. "When you run on to the court you have to know what you're trying to do as an individual and as a team, and you have to have an understanding of what your opponents are up to as well.

"We study our rivals thoroughly and analyse their strengths and weaknesses. If I know my opposite is very good at making cuts on the circle, then I can train specifically to counter that. They're only small things, but they can add up and make a difference."

Around home there was always a hoop beckoning and plenty of encouragement from her mother, Annette Rowe, and her dad, former Taranaki rugby representative Peter Harper.

But it was when she began to be identified by local talent scouts that her game began truly to flourish, and her subsequent move to the stronghold of Otago only accelerated that process.

Soon after, she joined the great southern exodus to the Sting and has impressed this season as one of the country's brightest talents, showing up with her quickness and resilience on defence and with her court vision and passing skills on attack.

Harper initially burst on to the scene as a goal-attack who could play wing-attack at a pinch, but her athleticism and distribution skills meant that she has spent more time at centre than anywhere else for the Sting.

There, she combines with wing-attack Kate Newson and wing-defence Lesley Nicol to form one of the tightest mid-courts in the country and one which is expected to have a titanic battle tonight against the Canterbury trio of Margaret Foster, Julie Seymour and Tasha Marshall.

"I'm really enjoying my netball right now," Harper said. "In the past three weeks it's been particularly good because we've finally got together as a team and clicked."

As for the fanatical Stadium Southland crowd, Harper said the noise they made sent shivers up her spine every time she ran out on to the court.

Southern Sting: Bernice Mene (capt), Donna Loffhagen, Adine Harper, Janine Topia, Megan Hutton, Lesley Nicol, Kirsty Broughton, Kate Newson, Rachel Gill, Leana Du Plooy, Jo Tapper, Reinga Bloxham.

Canterbury Flames: Belinda Colling, Jo Andrew, Vilimaina Davu, Angela Evans, Margaret Foster, Julie Seymour, Maree Grubb, Kelly Hutton, Katie Ritchie, Anna Veronese, Tasha Marshall.