Noni Wharemate, star guard of the Harbour Breeze is looking forward to the upcoming third and deciding Womens National Basketball Competition being played in Dunedin, Thursday – Saturday this week. Pressed to comment on who their greatest threat might be as the Breeze attempt to defend their title Noni says “It is a good competitive competition. In addition to Otago, Taranaki will be a threat and the Academy team have got better with every game.”

The eurobasket.com website describes Wharemate as ‘a point guard with great leadership and team mentality, with great passing skills and court vision. The typical coach on the court who cares about her team-mates’ A glowing but accurate tribute to the best female player currently gracing the basketball courts of New Zealand.

She learnt her skills at Church College and was offered a scholarship to a college in the States whilst still in her final year at school. She declined the offer and wondered whether another opportunity might come her way. She didn’t have to wait long and accepted an offer from the University of Texas El Paso in 2002. Her fondest memory of College basketball was her final game “I almost had a triple double and we beat Louisiana Tech who were off to the NCAA finals, I think it was the first time we had ever beaten them.”

First selected for the  NZ Tall Ferns in 2005, she has been a regular ever since winning a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and appearing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Noni has made herself available for the Ferns tour of Japan later this month but is unsure if she will be selected as work commitments preclude her from attending the pre tour training camp. Playing some of the best basketball of her career she is not ruling out continuing her international career should an opportunity to play at the 2012 Olympics arise. “But I have to be fair to my boss (at ANZ Bank Corporate Finance) though, he has supported me through my Commonwealth Games and Olympic campaigns. Also, having a busy job means I find it difficult to undertake the necessary maintenance on my lower back complaint.”

Watching her play you wouldn’t know that Wharemate has been playing with a persistent back injury for some months now. She is blessed with great speed and athleticism and also has that unusual commodity called hang time, not common in the mens game and rare in the womens.

She is really enjoying this season, “the team atmosphere is fun and I think you play better in a more relaxed atmosphere. I’m one of the old coots now, us oldies have mouths that still go all day but not the legs. It’s good to let the youngsters do the running”

Hardly an ‘old coot’ aged just 28 years old, Noni and fellow seniors Lana Kershaw, Julie Kelman-Poto and Jody Cameron will be hoping the legs and the mouths can carry them through the demands of six games in three days this week. Keep up to date with the Breeze results on the Harbour website.