03/09/2026
It is with great sadness we acknowledge the passing of a true community netball legend, Lorraine Tapp. Lorraine held an Otago Netball Association Service Award, Netball New Zealand Service Award and life membership of both South Otago Netball Centre and Netball South. These awards are acknowledgements of the hundreds of thousands of hours she willingly gave to foster, grow and support netball in the south by umpiring, coaching, playing and administrating the game.
Lorraine was a pivotal member of the Milton Netball Association from 1967 until it was wound up in 2000. She held many roles within the organisation including annual fund-raising activities. From 1972 she was the Coach and Selector of the Milton Representative teams. The Milton Umpires Association was founded in 1979 but Lorraine had long been involved in umpiring every Saturday prior to the formation of the group. She remained a member of the committee until the group was disbanded in 1997. Simultaneously, Lorraine was the driving force behind Netball at Tokomairiro High School. It would be a fair claim to say that high school netball at “Toko” would never have survived and flourished without Lorraine’s enthusiasm, interest and input. She coached the A and B teams from 1971 until 2012, a period of 40+ years. Lorraine attended every South Island Secondary Schools Netball Tournament since 1977 until her retirement (with the exception of one year). In 2011 and 2014 Toko won the B Grade competition – a source of great jubilation. In 2013 Lorraine honoured with a SISS Service Award.
In 2015 as Dunedin Netball Centre and the organisations that had gone before it (Otago Netball Assn and Union) celebrated its Centenary we recognised a group of legends in the game. Lorraine’s contribution to our region was significant and extremely valued and she was worthy of being noted as a true legend during the weekend of celebrations.
Our thoughts are with Alan and family at this time. Rest in love Lorraine.