Johansen\u2019s aunt Paula Graham told the Herald her niece proudly dedicated her life to sport and the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had the biggest heart and offered all-around support to her community.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was an awesome aunty to all the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johansen was days away from her 30th birthday on May 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have to still do something, celebrate in her memory,\u201d said Graham. <\/p>\n
Taupiri Rugby Club took to social media in Johansen\u2019s honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cKiddo wasn\u2019t just part of this club, she WAS the club for so many of us. One of the OGs [originals] of our women\u2019s team, there from the very beginning, helping build it into what it is today. Blood, sweat, bruises, laughs, broken nose; she gave it everything, and then gave even more.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was the kind of person who made everyone feel like they belonged. The quiet humour on the sideline, the first to check in on you, and somehow always in the middle of both the chaos and the organisation. <\/p>\n
\u201cTeammate, captain, committee member, one-(wo)man fundraising enthusiast, valued member of the sisterhood; she was all of it, all at once. Our No 4.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham told the Herald that Johansen was the first female rugby player to receive a Taupiri Rugby Club honorary blazer.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was actually offered a rugby contract in Italy, which she turned down at the time. Fortunately for Taupiri, she continued with them and joined their committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johansen was involved in athletics and was a part of multiple other social sports teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe played rugby for Waka Ama sports club, netball for the KiaOra Netball club and football for Ohinewai and Huntly schools,\u201d Graham said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe also managed the rugby club\u2019s local high school programme.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Graham, messages of support for Johansen\u2019s family and friends have poured in from across the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had huge support from everyone from \u014ctorohanga, the Waikato Rugby Club and overseas from sports clubs in Ireland, Italy and Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Johansen family opened their home to friends, family and the community today for an informal farewell.<\/p>\n
A formal service is set to take place this Friday at the Taupiri Rugby Club, followed by a private cremation. <\/p>\n
The sportswoman left behind her mother Lynette Johansen, father Rodney Johansen, younger brother Devon Johansen and partner Joey Barini.<\/p>\n
A donation hub has been set up to cover the costs of the funeral. Anyone wanting to contribute can do so by putting money into Johansen\u2019s mother\u2019s account: <\/p>\n
Lynette Johansen<\/p>\n
06-0329-0003100-18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johansen\u2019s aunt Paula Graham told the Herald her niece proudly dedicated her life to sport and the community.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[202466,74,48376,6794,9218,6325,1596,2511,80246,4731,6179,1888,202464,111,139,69,2247,213,202465,43211,6378,202463,1524,6123,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-391608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-30th","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-aneurysm","11":"tag-baby","12":"tag-before","13":"tag-birthday","14":"tag-brain","15":"tag-child","16":"tag-courtney","17":"tag-days","18":"tag-died","19":"tag-first","20":"tag-johansen","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-pregnant","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-sportswoman","27":"tag-suffering","28":"tag-suffers","29":"tag-taupiris","30":"tag-waikato","31":"tag-while","32":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}