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2003
Soccer Bug Anything But Humbug To Humby
by Jeremy Ruane
Picture the scene: any Saturday morning during the football season at Lloyd Elsmore Park, 1989. Eight-year-old Marcel Edwin is having the time of his life, as he does every Saturday morning, playing soccer with his pals.
A fair few family members are cheering the youngsters on from the sideline, including Marcel’s ten-year-old cousin, who’s never played the game before, but, inspired by her young relative’s obvious enjoyment, is quite taken with the idea of playing herself.
"I guess I caught the soccer bug off him in a big way!!" laughs Auckland women’s soccer star, Dana Humby, about her introduction to the sport at the club then known as Howick, but now as Fencibles United.
The soccer career of the likable twenty-four-year-old has come on in leaps and bounds since those introductory days, to the point where she has been a member of the "A Team" squad for three seasons now, making her debut for the province against North Harbour at the 2001 National Tournament.
It’s a far cry from those Saturday mornings at Howick, but Humby is more than happy with the situation. "I’m really enjoying it. They’re a good bunch of girls", says the defender of her representative colleagues, who helped their team-mate celebrate her twenty-fourth birthday in the time-honoured manner following the recent 2-1 defeat by Auckland-Manukau (Soccer2) of North Harbour (United Soccer) on the day.
"The National Women’s Soccer League itself is a good step-up from club level, and has certainly helped my game personally, a result of playing against better opponents", says the player who has scored two goals for her province, from the penalty spot against the NZ Under-18s in National Tournament play in 2001, and with a delicious twenty-yard chip against Southern Soccer last season.
On the local scene, Humby plays for the Ellerslie team which has savoured success just once during this, her second spell at the Michaels Avenue club. And while that 2001 triumph in the Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup Final is the outstanding highlight of her career at club level to date, the lady nicknamed "Daytime" is aiming even higher in her pursuit of success.
"Having sampled a taste of the international scene as part of the New Zealand Regional Selection which took part in the quadrangular tournament at Bill McKinlay Park in 2001, I’m definitely aiming to be a member of the New Zealand squad named to contest the Oceania Women’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Vanuatu next March", declares Dana, whose versatility - she can also ply her trade in midfield - and penalty-taking prowess will likely stand her in good stead when the time comes for that squad to be named.
Meantime, the Parts Department employee at Ford New Zealand, who is a keen mountain-biker and multi-sports participant as well as one of her province’s premier women’s soccer exponents, will be doing her level best to help the reigning National Women’s Soccer League champions return to winning ways this weekend, as they look to win the much-coveted title again.
The "A Team" heads to Palmerston North to take on current co-leaders Central Soccer on Saturday at 2pm, then doubles up on home turf at 11am on Monday against Southern Soccer, the Otago-Southland representatives, at Ken Maunder Park, a match in which the Challenge Cup will be at stake for the first time in Auckland’s tenure.
Winning both matches is paramount to the champions’ hopes of becoming the first team to secure the coveted league-cup double since the introduction of the National Women’s Soccer League in 2002, and achieving that aim, plus her hoped-for SWANZ call-up, will give Humby more reasons to thank her cousin for passing on the soccer bug next time she sees him!!
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    photo courtesy Shane Wenzlick / Suburban Newspapers
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