Rina Paraone
Kaipara College year 13 student Rina Paraone has become the first female to be awarded North Harbour Rugby Union Young Player of the Year. She has also been awarded a Sport Waikato Scholarship, which has since been upgraded to a prestigious Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award. This caps a year of success for the talented captain of the Kaipara College 1st XV and sevensteams, whose many 2016 awards included College Sport Auckland Women’s Rugby Player of the Year and North Harbour Rugby Union’s Farah Palmer Cup for Women’s Most Promising Player.
Rina has proved herself an inspirational leader. Under her captaincy the Kaipara College team reached the Top 4 teams in 2016 for the first time and after her team became the North Harbour Sevens champions she was named in the national women’s sevens development rugby squad.
A keen sportswoman who has also played netball, touch and waka ama, Rina’s goal is to play rugby in the Olympics. Described as having “all the attributes of a player who will go far in the women’s game, particularly strong and swift on her feet and organised in defence”, Rina plays prop, centre and 2nd five.