Episode - 24 Nooroa and Jojo Manu

January 25, 2022

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Kia Ora

Welcome to episode twenty four.

This is Nooroa and his son Joseph Manu.

Nooroa has five children (four boys and a girl) with his beautiful wife Darnel. Nooroa was born in the Cook Islands and moved here when he was just four years old. He moved to a place in NZ called Tokoroa. He was a natural at running and found his love for sports amongst his mates in Tok. He exceled in rugby and started to make rep. teams and knew he could make something of this sport. He is spiritual as well and served a mission for his church. This is where I got to know him. He was serving in my town in the bottom of NZ. We instantly loved Nooroa as a family.

He married the love of his life, Darnel, who he met at Church College of NZ and then played semi professionally in NZ and had his University paid for. Since then he's been studying and coaching sports with the children in mind, especially his own. He created a programme where he trained up his and other children to be something great. He made sure he had fun with them and covered all four basis, physical, spiritual, mental and emotional training.

Jojo and his siblings were all a part of this training and currently three of them are in semi pro or pro teams. I'd say it works right?

Jojo was a natural athlete but had to take it a step further to make sure he could go all the way. He worked hard, even when he wanted to hang out with mates, and he trained hard. He also made rep teams in rugby and in league. He was scouted at the young age of 15 and was offered a contract at 16 for the Sydney Roosters. Noone had seen a contract quite like that.

Nooroa and Darnel weren't ready to let their 16 year old quite move out of the house yet and so the Roosters came back with a unique contract just for Jojo. He traveled weekends and holiday to Sydney to be trained up.

Once that contract was over he played in the top 30, professionally for the NRL. He's also represented NZ in league as well and has loved where this sport has taken him. Jojo has been all around the world yet remains humble and kind. He keeps his head low and his standards close to his heart. He loves his fans and his family and friends.

He's currently engaged to a beautiful girl who he's been with for eight years. He loves his life in Sydney and hopes to continue to play hard for years to come. He also hopes to give back to children and the community when his NRL career has finished.

Please come and listen to their story. It's a wonderful one.

Until next time.....

Ka kite ano au i a koutou