Rising Sports Stars with Kelly Exelby of Eves Realty

If practice makes perfect then Mount Maunganui College's Amon Rimene is well on his way to achieving his lofty goal of being the number one rugby whistler on the planet.

While most of his peers are passing and kicking the rugby ball, the affable, chatty 17-year-old has made refereeing his passion and is excelling at an early age, with his achievements and dedication recognised at last week's Bay of Plenty Sports Awards.

Nominated by Mount college, Amon was a standout winner of the best student contribution to sport, with a list of successes in 2012 so long you almost need a cup of tea and a lie down after reading it.

Amon was Bay of Plenty touch referee of the year, officiating in 100 games, including the Maori nationals. He is off to the national touch champs in Hopuhopu in a couple of weeks and also whistled up a storm at touch's interprovincial series and the youth nationals in Nelson.

Amon Rimene has his eyes on the ball.

But it's in the 15-a-side code he is really stamping his mark, with an incredible 70 games of rugby refereed during this winter, including some Saturdays where he would pull on the white official's jersey several times to help out across several grades.

He ref'ed 21 games during the AIMS Games, including the final, at the national under-15 championships in Rotorua, the Northern Region Rollers Mills and Bay secondary schools.

When Amon isn't out in the middle holding a whistle he's camped out at Baypark Stadium during the ITM Cup, assisting with ground set-up, running errands, ref'ing curtain-raisers or doubling as the Bay mascot.

Unsurprsingly, he wasn't a hard pick for a Bay of Plenty sports award gong last week.

'I was pretty blown away by that really,” says Amon.

'I knew I'd been nominated but to get it was a complete surprise.”

Among the hundreds of touch and rugby games he controlled this year, two stand out – Reporoa College's Baywide secondary schools division two semi-final win over Katikati College which went into extra-time, and the following weekend's final between Reporoa and Aquinas College.

'It's been a pretty big season but those two games were real good because there was a lot on the line. To also get given my first colts (under-21) game to ref was a highlight.”

He uses touch as a way of sharpening his communication skills and has set his sights next year on a feast of colts fixtures and a couple of senior B games.

The big goal, however, is to work his way up the chain in the next decade to become the first New Zealander to referee a World Cup final.

'You've got to have big dreams otherwise you'll never go anywhere. I remember Bryce Lawrence sending me a text saying ‘the harder you work, the luckier you get' and that's what I'm trying to do right now.”