Khiarna Williams playing for the Magic in 2021. Photo: Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz
In 2021 Khiarna Williams emerged as one of the most exciting young shooters in New Zealand, but a serious car accident marked the start of a painstaking journey back to court.
The 21-year-old will finally make a return to elite netball when the ANZ Premiership gets underway in two weeks.
Williams - who can play both shooting positions - was hugely impressive in her second season with the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, with her athletic and aerial skills.
She was introduced to top level netball at an exceptionally young age when she debuted in the NNL feeder league in 2017 as a 14-year-old, the same year she made the New Zealand Secondary Schools team.
In 2020, she became a fully contracted member of the Magic while in her last year of Trident High School in Whakatāne. The fresh faced 17-year-old never looked out of place, and was always willing to put the shot up.
But just as she was building momentum at a tender age, injuries put the brakes on her progress for two years.
In December 2021 she was driving from Whakatāne to Rotorua for a Magic camp when she fell asleep at the wheel and went directly into a tree. She partially broke her back, sustaining a tear right through the soft tissue.
"If I didn't have surgery, the doctors pretty much said I wouldn't be able to play netball at all again," Williams said. "As soon as they told me that I was pretty much agreed that I would have the surgery - it was kind of not really an option for me to not have the surgery.
"It involved having four screws put in my back, which is kind of holding it together, I guess, so that I'm not imbalanced."
Khiarna Williams in 2021 Photo: Jeremy Ward
Instead of enjoying the summer socialising with her friends, the then 19-year-old was completely reliant on her parents.
"After I had the surgery they tried to get me up the next day, I was using a walker just to get back on my feet.
"I couldn't tolerate walking for a long period of time. I could maybe walk 20 to 30 metres and then I'd get really really sore. That was probably the hardest bit, and I couldn't sit up on a chair for longer than a minute, it was quite tough going home after that.
"I really couldn't do a lot for myself, I couldn't shower by myself, I had to kind of sit down in the shower and have my Mum helping me for a while, it was pretty hard to do basic everyday things."
The rehabilitation process was painstaking.
"Walking was the first thing that myself and the physio were trying to do, just going for walks, even if it was five minutes, if it was 100 metres.
"The first bit of running I did was after two months and that was for maybe a minute."
It was at least seven months after the accident when Williams played her first netball "and that was even slow introductions, five minutes, and then 10 minutes… so it took a while to get back but it was good."
Williams had spent hundreds of hours as a teenager travelling between her home in Whakātane to Hamilton or Rotorua; her in the passenger seat, a coach or parent driving.
Like many New Zealand teenagers, she got her driver's licence so she didn't have to rely on others.
She left home at about 6am that fateful morning and was about half-an-hour into the drive when the accident occurred.
"You never think it's going to happen to you either, you don't think those things happen to you… you think you can stay awake."
After missing the entire 2022 Magic season, she signed with the Wellington-based Pulse as a training partner for 2023, but ended up missing another season. She dislocated her shoulder at netball in the off-season, and an MRI scan showed there was a big tear, which required surgery.
The 21-year-old had to go through another rehabilitation process and start from scratch.
Caitlin Bassett of the Magic warms up with Khiarna Williams of the Magic during the 2021 ANZ Premiership. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2021 www.photosport.nz
"Just being able to do the things that we have to do to play at this level, starting again has been hard - you think you remember how hard it is, but your body is not used to it.
"But I love it, it's exciting to be able to do this all again. I'm just excited to get back on court after so long. We've had a couple of pre-season mini tournaments and I've been playing a bit so it's really getting even more exciting."
Williams, who has just started a full-time teaching degree, will join incumbents Tiana Metuarau and Amelia Walmsley in the Pulse's shooting end. The trio will form the youngest shooting end in the ANZ Premiership, with Metuarau 23 and Walmsley just 20.
In 2020, Williams played alongside Metuarau in the NZ U21 team, during the Cadbury series.
Williams has had an interesting career so far. At the Magic in 2021 she had the unique experience of playing alongside legendary Australian shooter Caitlin Bassett, who made her international debut when Williams was only five years old.
"My first year out of school she came and joined us and she was really great… she just gave great feedback."
Williams has already been exposed to a lot on the netball court at such a young age and said it had probably forced her to mature a little faster.
"I've kind of had to be, I guess, being around people quite a bit older than me and very experienced players, you do grow your maturity level quite a bit to be able to have done it so young."
The eighth edition of the domestic league starts on 13 April when the Magic host the Mystics in Hamilton.