From not wanting to be left out in the cold to the world’s top hockey umpire, Amber Church has come a long way. Yet no matter where around the globe the sport takes her, the centre of her universe remains Tairāwhiti, Aiden McLaughlin discovers.
By day, she's a Gisborne schoolteacher. But in her other life, Amber Church is on top of the hockey umpiring world.
Named by the International Hockey Federation as the female umpire of the year for 2021-22, it’s the second major milestone for Church this year. The 34-year-old brought up a century of international appearances in May, during the women’s trans-Tasman series between the Black Sticks and Australia in Auckland.
Since then, she's been an on-field umpire in the finals of both the women’s World Cup, played in the Netherlands and Spain in July, and then the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Starting with her first test match in 2009, between New Zealand and India in Nelson, Church’s tally of international appearances now stands at 111.
It’s a journey that started at the age of 15 back in Tairāwhiti, Gisborne.
“My older brother had hockey training on Tuesday and Thursday nights and there just happened to be an umpiring course being run at the same time,” says Church.
“Only having one vehicle back in those days, we all had to come into town from Te Karaka and go home again at the same time, so it was either sit out in the cold and watch him train or go and learn some rules. So I went in with my twin brother and learnt some rules,” she says.
“At the end of it, you had to sit an exam to pass and I got one more mark than him. It was the first time in my life I’d ever beaten him at anything, so I thought I’d see how this goes.”
Church also played hockey back then - and still does, turning out regularly for her local team Paikea in Gisborne. But it was a lack of opportunity that accelerated her development as an umpire.
“When I was 15, there was no rep team for me to play in, being from Gisborne and it being such a small place,” she says. “But I still wanted to be involved. The rep team below me, the U13s, needed to take an umpire away and I was asked if I wanted to go.
“It seemed like a great way of staying in touch with the game and still going away to tournaments, so I jumped at the chance. That was how I got into the pathway of New Zealand hockey officiating.”
Church’s umpiring performances saw her progress through the age grades. Normally girls would umpire girls tournaments and boys would umpire boys tournaments, but being from a small town, she was able to get a special dispensation to umpire boys.
When she started studying at Massey University in Palmerston North, Church worked out there was an opportunity for her to take her umpiring further than she had originally thought, but it wasn’t easy.
“Balancing full time study in Palmy and time off for a hockey umpire was tough, so I decided to go extramural with my study and move back home to Gisborne - and the rest is history. I jumped in and did what I could, and it’s taken me all over the world,” she says.
Church’s studies saw her enter teaching. She started at Te Hapara School in Gisborne where she worked for 10 years and during that time, she was presented with her first international opportunity.
“I was really fortunate my boss at the time, Kaye Griffin, was really supportive. She thought it was pretty exciting and pretty unique to have a hockey umpire on the staff,” says Church.
Since 2018, Church has been working at Gisborne Intermediate. As well as being a classroom teacher, she’s on their leadership team and is the health curriculum leader. The school - along with her partner Craig Christophers, a deputy principal at Lytton High School - are key to helping her continue to pursue her umpiring career.
“I’m really lucky to have a big support network around me that pick up the slack in other areas when I’m away,” says Church. “That really helps me to go away and focus on what it is that I’m doing.
“Not only do I work hard for them [the school], they work hard for me as well. It’s pretty cool to be able to teach children and then go off and experience something like the Commonwealth Games and come back and talk to them about my first-hand experiences of what they’ve seen on TV,” she says.
“They also get to see some of these people involved in these games are just your everyday people, and it’s hard work and a bit of perseverance and your support network around you that make it happen.”
Although hockey has taken Church to all corners of the world, the sport back home remains a passion. Her father is Māori – their iwi is Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki - and she has strong connections with Māori hockey. She has just been named umpire/referee of the year at the 2022 Māori Sports Awards.
“Something I wholeheartedly believe in is the Māori whakataukī ‘Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini’. My success is not the work of only myself, but the work of many - my whanau, friends and our community are a massive part of it,” says Church.
“I’ve always identified really strongly with Māori. I grew up going to Māori tournaments. I’m really passionate about people understanding that there’s a different pathway in sport and that anyone can do it.
“There’s a huge population of Māori in Gisborne who play hockey and so it’s cool to see the fact that not only do I identify as Māori, but they’re also really proud of me and what I do as well.”
Umpiring local hockey is important to her, too.
“All hockey is good hockey and it’s important for the locals to see I’m really passionate about what we have here. Every hockey game is really important to different people for different reasons,” Church says.
With so many international games behind her, Church has been involved in numerous major tournaments, including the last two Olympic Games.
“You can never go past an Olympic Games. It’s incredibly special,” says Church.
Amber Church on being named FIH female umpire of the year.
The 2016 Rio Games held extra significance for Church. She obtained her international badge in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro and so being appointed to the Olympic Games there represented a full circle for her.
“The location of the hockey pitch was built on top of where my first international tournament was and you could see how the community had really changed and developed to support those Olympic Games,” she says.
Where Rio provided familiar surroundings, last year’s Olympics in Tokyo presented uncertainty for all involved, including questions as to whether or not they would even take place.
“It was quite difficult to prepare for something that may not happen, but with umpiring, there’s so many things that you can’t control,” Church says. “So I just went there with the approach of control what I can control and forget what I can’t.
“I could control how mentally and physically prepared I was, so I put my focus and attention into preparing myself,” she says.
Apart from the major tournaments, some of Church’s career highlights are the people who she’s met across the world along the way.
But wherever those people are from, home is where her heart is and she’s proud that a young woman from Gisborne has been able to progress through domestic and international pathways and scale the heights of her sport.
“People see that location is not necessarily a barrier. If you want it bad enough, and you’ve got the drive and support, anything is possible.”
