At Mana Pacific we are proud to have supported another young Pacific athlete from Manawatū, New Zealand to excel and develop her ability to give back to community.
2019 Mana Pacific sponsorship honouree - Layla Sae
Hailing from the Manawatū, New Zealand Layla Sae is a young NZ-Sāmoan athlete with aspirations to be an elite sportsperson. She completed her final secondary year at St Peter's College, Palmerston North where during this time she was selected to play in the U19 Z-Air Māori Volleyball team. They travelled to Manila, Philippines to compete in the Rebisco volleyball competition. Reflecting on the trip Layla says she got to appreciate meeting new people and experiencing the Filipino lifestyle - the people, their language and food!
So far in her sports journey Layla considers this Philippines trip to be one of her key highlights alongside two others - being selected for the (NZ) 2018 Secondary School Volleyball Tournament team and also being selected for the NZL Junior Development Volleyball team.
Asked about her future ambitions Layla shares, "my future aspirations would be to keep competing in sports at a high level and seeing what other opportunities it presents me with."
Where is Layla now?
2021 - Layla is a professional elite athlete(!) and currently plays for the Manawatū Cyclones Women's Rugby team and was also selected to play in the Black Ferns Sevens White team as part of the pre-games to 2021 Super Rugby NZ Round 7 Hurricanes v Crusaders.
My future aspirations would be to keep competing in sports at a high level and seeing what other opportunities it presents me with.
