12/02/2021
Softball has been honoured at the Māori Sports Awards with former Black Sox captain Nathan Nukunuku named as one of the 30 most influential Māori sports stars of the past 30 years.
The Māori Sports Awards 30-30 TV show is counting down the top 30 Māori sports achievers since 1991 in a three-part series screening on Māori Television and Sky Sports.
Softball - known in Māori as Poiuka - featured prominently in the first episode on Tuesday night, with Nathan (Ngāti Porou) named as the 21st most influential Māori sports star of the past three decades.
Nathan - who will be Auckland's player-coach at this week's NFC tournament at Albany - was described by broadcaster Dale Husband as "coming from a whole line of softball guns'', including brother Dion, a three-time world champion''.
Nathan's parents, Christine and Walter, were also acknowledged, with Husband saying "his mum was one of our top scorers'' and softball commentator Jason Gerbes saying: "The most influential person in [Nathan's] life was his father, who showed him everything to do with the game, not just how to play it, but why to play it.''
Veteran Māori sports broadcaster Hemana Waaka said Nathan was "fast around the diamond, he was vocal, which is good because he encouraged his teammates from afar, but he was someone who would eat, sleep and play softball. In his heart, there was no better sport.''
Tributes were also paid to some of our game's great Māori players of the past, including Jane Te Hira, Naomi Shaw, Nardi Leonard, Chubb Tangaroa, Rhonda Hira, Gina Weber and Nathan's Black Sox world title winning teammates Jarrad Martin, Brad Rona and Thomas Makea.
The 30 in 30 show also acknowledged "there has been strong Māori participation in softball since its introduction to Aotearoa'' in the 1930s.
Watch The Māori Sports Awards 30-30 show here. The softball component starts at 22:13.
https://www.maoritelevision.com/shows/maori-sports-awards-30-30
The final two episodes - leading to the naming of the most influential Māori sports person of the past 30 years - will screen on Wednesday night and Thursday night on Māori Television (at 7.30pm) and on Sky Sport 1 (a 8.30pm).