Leonie Leaver is a former New Zealand netball player who represented the New Zealand national netball team, known as the Silver Ferns, on 19 occasions. She is now a netball coach.

Early life

Leonie Leaver (née Wendt) was born in Fiji. She attended Henderson High School, Auckland. She married Mark Leaver who, together with his brother Brett, played international hockey as members of the New Zealand men's national field hockey team.[1][2]

Netball career

Leaver played netball for the Auckland Under-19 team in 1983 and 1984, moving on to the Under-21 team in 1985 and 1986. She represented the New Zealand Young Internationals in 1985 and 1986. From 1987 to 1993 she played for Auckland in the National Provincial netball tournament, and in 1991 she was selected to play for the Silver Ferns, representing New Zealand in the 1991 World Netball Championships, where the team won a silver medal, losing 52–53 to Australia in the final. Her international career ended when she had her first child, but she returned to the game in 1996 to play for the Auckland Diamonds until 1999, when she left the game to care for her children, returning for one season in 2002. She also played at senior level and was still competing in 2017, at the World Masters Games. Her daughter, Brooke Leaver, was also a leading netball player.[2][3][4][5][6]

Coaching career

Since retiring, Leaver has held a wide range of coaching positions in the Auckland area. In 2010 she took up a position as netball coach at One Tree Hill College, a coeducational secondary school located in the district of Ellerslie in Auckland. Since 2014, she has also coached netball at Baradene College of the Sacred Heart near Auckland. In 2015, Leaver established a charity called ShoeBoxx, which aims to fight poverty by supplying children and youth with sports shoes.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Trio to be inducted into Ōtara Sports Hall of Fame". Our Auckland. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Netball: Being a mum top priority for old hand". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  3. ↑ "Brooke Leaver". ANZ Premiership. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  4. ↑ "NZSS Leave for Australia". Netball New Zealand. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "Netball team playing in Tania Dalton's memory wins gold". RNZ. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Leonie Leaver". LinkedIn. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
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