Olivia Berry's unique rise to professional basketball in the Tauihi league has been peppered with challenges - and she almost quit the game. But that's driving the Northern Kāhu point guard to be the best, Shontelle Matano writes.
Oliva Berry was eight years old, jumping on the trampoline in her backyard - flying free, without a care in the world – when she noticed something different.
In the distance, someone was mowing their lawn and every time she’d twist in the air, the volume of the mower would change.
“I specifically remember the hum of the lawn mower fluctuating up and down with my jumps,” she says.
That’s when she realised something wasn’t right – which led to the discovery she was completely deaf in her right ear.
At times, Berry – about to turn 26 - doesn’t know where sound is coming from. “It completely disorientates me, especially playing sports.” Which can’t be easy on, or off, the basketball court for the Northern Kāhu point guard.
During a timeout in the Tauihi league this season, as Kāhu head coach Jody Cameron was talking to the team, Berry was next to her squinting, leaning in trying to pay close attention to what she was saying.
“I don’t really know what I’m missing or not hearing,” Berry says. “The most frustration would come from those around me, when they might be saying something or trying to get my attention and I’m completely oblivious.”
It also impacts her in social settings when some people may think she’s ignoring them.
“This is a common factor with invisible and mental health disabilities. But it’s just one of those things I can’t change and must try to adapt,” Berry says.
Her experience has made her consider challenges people go through that aren’t always obvious.
“It has definitely made me more aware of the physical and mental ailments people live with that we don’t know about,” she says. “And it’s made me more grateful for the hearing I still have, as so many people don’t even have that privilege.”
Berry hasn’t let this affect her, recognising it’s something that makes her who she is; propelling her to never let anything stop her from being the best.
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At the start of this year, before the inaugural season of Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa began, Berry, the Kāhu’s reserve guard, was on the brink of quitting basketball.
Covid had hampered most of her time with the Auckland Dream in the former national women’s league, and she wasn’t sure if she still loved the game enough to keep going.
“I was considering just hanging my shoes up and focusing on my academics,” says Berry, who already has a string of degrees.
But in January she attended a Basketball New Zealand 3x3 camp and was invited to train for the Whai – the Waikato Bay of Plenty team in Tauihi. She didn’t make the team, but basketball wasn’t going to give up on her.
Berry received a message from the head coach of the 3x3 Tall Ferns, Justine Reed, asking if she was going to trial for Northern Kāhu. She replied: “I wasn’t going to. But I’ll come scrimmage.”
“I just kept going to the trainings because it’s a good distraction from all my study,” Berry says. “And then eventually they were just like ‘Hey do you want a spot on the team?’”
Many of those involved with Tauihi this season have spoken about how the competition has inspired the next generation, and for the players it feels like they’re now getting the respect they deserve.
For Berry, it felt unusual at first realising she was playing in a league that was actually paying her rent.
“I’m starting to truly appreciate the value of the sport and everything that comes with it. Finally, I feel like we’re getting something back,” she says.
In the inaugural season, Berry played in 13 of her team’s 14 matches, coming off the bench and averaging nine minutes per game. Despite the limited playing time, she gave it her all, never half-hearted.
Led by veteran Tall Fern Micaela Cocks and eventual league MVP, Tahlia Tupaea, the Kāhu dominated the regular season, finishing with a 10-2 record and making it to the grand final.
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Berry’s journey to where she is now is different to most professional basketball players.
She didn’t spend four years in an American college and says she’s “on the back foot with a little bit to catch up,” compared to some of her teammates like college standouts Krystal Leger-Walker and Tera Reed.
It’s been beneficial for Berry having former Tall Fern legends Cameron and Leanne Walker at the helm of her Kāhu team.
“They’ve been a huge help,” Berry says. “I really respect Jody, she tells it how it is.
“I feel like I’ve been a student the whole time. Every game, every training I’m basically mentally taking notes. That’s been my whole mentality, just absorb.”
Growing up, Berry was a sporty kid, from a proud soccer family, who started playing basketball when she was seven.
In Year 10, she decided to focus on basketball after making the Rangitoto College premier team. But in her final year of high school, she tore her ACL, ruling her out of the season and beginning an unexpected journey of personal development.
More than 12 months later, she received news she could return to the hardwood. On the same day, Berry received a message from a coach saying “This team needs an international, do you want to go?”
“So I just kind of thought it was a sign that he asked me on the same day that I was cleared. I went within a few weeks,” Berry says.
She was 18 when she moved to Canada to play at the University of Calgary, and though she was grateful for the opportunity, she soon learned it wasn’t for her. She stayed a year before returning home.
“It was a really good adventure but there were a lot of mental aspects that I hadn’t developed enough. Things like confidence and knowing myself, knowing the way I played, things I needed to work on,” she says. “It kind of went out the window.”
After going through those mental struggles, she spent a lot of time reflecting and figuring out how she could do better, heeding advice from her mentors.
She still remembers sitting in her coach’s office when advised her what it took to be a better player. He told her two of the most important things when you’re playing are self-belief and assertiveness.
It was an epiphany for Berry, something she needed to hear and a piece of advice she would eventually adopt off the court, too.
“I realised that you can’t just will self-belief into existence - you have to put in the work and the preparation in order to build that self-belief,” Berry says.
“Once you have that you can be assertive, because you believe in yourself and you need to put yourself out there in a way that you don’t let things get in your way.” That accelerated her confidence on the court.
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On the court, Berry is ferocious. Off it she’s relaxed. It’s a rare combo but for the guard who stands at 1.67m, it works.
She has an alter ego who emerges every time she’s on the court - shether she’s using her speed to split the defence or stun spectators with her crazy hops.
“I think it’s very instinctual. I think I’m just an explosive person in general,” Berry says. “Perhaps watching certain players has influenced it. But maybe it’s the other way around, where I’m drawn to those players intrinsically because that’s the way I am.”
Even for Berry’s former American teammate at the Auckland Dream, Casyn Buchman, it was always a challenge when coach Aik Ho put Berry up against her at the half court.
“Olivia’s an absolute beast. I always hated playing against her because she’s one of the toughest people I’ve ever had to guard at practice,” Buchman says.
Away from the court, academics and writing are passions of Berry’s. She likes to read fiction and gets ideas from different plots and films to inspire her own writing.
She likes stepping into the shoes of other people and understanding their point of view.
“I just really enjoy exploring new perspectives and trying to imagine how other people think and feel, and how they act certain ways,” she says.
Berry used to have notebooks, and numerous pieces of paper with thoughts, stories and ideas scattered on them.
She uses the court as an outlet for her emotion, and writing as a time to reflect and slow down.
At the end of this semester, she will complete her Masters in theology adding to her Bachelor of Arts double major in psychology and criminology, an honours degree in criminology and a graduate diploma in English.
Her only goal in life is to always learn and evolve. “A lot of it is just thinking about the adverse outcome. If you weren’t able to achieve it, this is what your life would look like and if you're unsatisfied with that outcome then you have no other option but to push for this.”
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As the Tauihi season continued, the Kāhu went on a nine game-winning streak before succumbing to defeat for the first time in round 6, to the eventual champion, Tokomanawa Queens. The regular season champions, Kāhu lost their grand final play-off to the Queens, 72-61.
Despite not winning the championship, making the finals of a historic league was an achievement Berry couldn’t have imagined just a year ago - when she was considering giving up the sport.
Even when she wasn’t on the court, she took in everything being around established players and coaches. Especially playing behind a big three of accomplished guards.
“The point guard runs things and sets the tone,” Berry says. “And to have that times three, I think that’s what really kept us in the game, especially in the high pressure moments when we were losing at half-time and were able to bounce back.”
For two months, Berry lived a fast-moving, buzzing lifestyle she says she’s not used to, and with “no days off”. But it was worth it. Whatever she decides to do next, she’ll go all in.
