The former Silver Fern and broadcaster grew up in Canterbury, captained her province throughout the 1980s and still supports the Crusaders.
But when the shooter retired in 1993, she moved north to Auckland for work and spent the next 20 years in broadcasting as a sports presenter for TVNZ and in lifestyle television.
During that time, Ieremia moved away from netball, focusing on her career, which took her across the world covering the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
But when her daughter, Atlanta, took up netball, Ieremia decided: "I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing".
She returned to the sport, coaching through the ranks in Auckland, and is in Dunedin this week as Auckland’s assistant coach at the national championships.
"I think provincial pride is what this tournament is all about," Ieremia said.
"I don’t know what happened prior, but it’s where we were in the 80s.
"All the best of the best would come out and they would play for their colours really proudly and loudly.
"Being able to have that, you know, provincial pride ... is what I really like."
Ieremia coached Auckland under-17 and under-19 teams, before premier grades, serving as Northern Marvels assistant coach last year.
She became the head coach of Westlake Girls’ — where she is now the director of sport — in 2016, finishing second and third at national secondary school championships, and helped with New Zealand secondary schools.
Her daughter was the main reason she returned to netball, but after being coached by "salt-of-the-earth people" — Georgie Salter, Leigh Gibbs, Lois Muir — she wanted to return the favour.
"It was just the idea of holistically, and everyone will say this, but it’s true," Ieremia said.
"So many people gave so much to me as a player ... so I just wanted to give as much as I could back.
"I’m doing it on the community level, through school, through reps, and if I had to do anything else, I would happily do it."
Netball had changed a lot since Ieremia retired.
There was no money in the sport in her heyday and the level of professionalism had improved for the better.
"I would say when I came back to rep coaching, that’s when you got to see the real change in the level of professionalism.
"Everyone talks about the game and the speed and everything. I would say surfaces have made that possible because everything’s indoor, wooden, faster."
She loved helping out coach Auckland, who qualified for the top eight of the national championships yesterday.
They play Tauranga for a spot in the semifinals at 10am today.
