Matariki Team - Waitī

Posted May 27, 2022
IHNZ News Matariki

Within the Matariki star cluster, the Waitī star watches over our freshwater environments, our awa (rivers), roto (lakes), kūkūwai (wetlands), and waipuna (springs).  As the waters flow, she sees how they support us, provide for us, connect us, and sustain us. Waitī has heard the important stories that our waters have to tell and encourages us to listen and learn from them as well.

Lewis Taiapa leads the Waitī team consisting of:

• William Jackson
• Hayden Stockman
• Jason McLean
• Trent Kemsley
• Ryan Friedlos
• Theo Taylor
• Montell Marjoribanks

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Lewis Taiapa has a long career in Inline Hockey and has been one of our successful New Zealand Senior Men’s team captains for a number of years.

Lewis has also represented New Zealand in Floorball and represents the Wellington region in Ice Hockey. As an original member of the Maori team in 2015 Lewis has a keen interest in ensuring this tradition continues. More recently Lewis has been coaching a number of Junior teams for the Vipers.
 
Some of Lewis’s highlights include:

• Being the First NZ Club to play at NARCh in 2012 -  making the Men’s Semifinal and winning the Men’s Skills Contest with “Best Moves.”
• Oceanias Gold from 2001- 2010 (or 2014?) as NZ Mens Captain 2009  onwards
• IIHF Silver Medal 2007, Captain Mens IIHF 2011-2017
• Penguins Prems Nationals Champs - 2008’, 10’, 12’, 14’, 15’, 16’, 17’, 18’, 19’
• Lower Interregionals
• Coach Vipers u10s team - First Club National Championship 2018  u10s
• Helped to set up first NZ Maori team 2015, Exhibition game vs Invitational squad, then Exhibition game vs Team Hawaii 2017.

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William Jackson has played both roller hockey (quad) and Inline Hockey from a young age.

William has also played Ice Hockey and currently enjoys playing Softball with his wider family members. He has represented Northern Region Inline Hockey and New Zealand at the age-group level. He currently plays for the Mt Wellington Panthers Premier Men’s Team.
 
William says he plays inline hockey because, after all this time, it’s still fun!

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Hayden Stockman has played Inline Hockey for the past 20 years for the Hamilton Devils club. He has represented the Central region at multiple events.

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Trent Kemsley says he started as a young buck in Inline Hockey and is now an old bull!

Trent has played most of his hockey life at the Ravens and has represented Central Region and New Zealand.

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Jason McLean has been playing hockey for over 25 years. During this time I have won multiple National titles with a few teams as well as been a member of multiple NZ teams.

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Ryan Friedlos started to play hockey with Hattrick Hockey at ActivZone in 2013. Ryan joined the Vipers club in early 2014 and has played in the regional league with the Vipers ever since. Being from a smaller cub, he has helped out with both the Stingrays and Minors at various tournaments over the years.

Since then Ryan has been selected to play for Northern Region at the Inter-Regional tournaments each year since first trialling for the tournament held in Whanganui in 2016, and in 2019 travelled to Hawaii with the NZ 14u teams to play at the AAU tournament.

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Theo Taylor has played for the New Plymouth Ravens for the last 7 years.
 
Theo says he hasn’t trialed for a number of years but this year he has trialed for the NZ 18U team. He is still enjoying his hockey and is playing consistently still!

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Montell Marjoribanks plays for the Mt Wellington Panthers 16U team in net and has represented the Northern Region on a number of occasions and New Zealand at the AAU tournament in Hawaii.

When not playing hockey Montell enjoys fishing with his grandfather, gaming, and listening to music.
 
Montell is proudly representing his iwi - Ngati Whatua, Ngapuhi and Ngai Tahu.