Monica Teresa Burns holds pride of place as one of 15 Southlanders on the honours board at the Invercargill airport.
She was awarded the QSM yesterday and is now on the national honours list as well.
"I'm excited and overwhelmed," Mrs Burns told the Otago Daily Times from Invercargill.
"I have been coaching netball all my life but didn't expect this."
Mrs Burns has been honoured for her 50 years' service to netball as a player and a coach.
She played the game for 22 years and represented Southland for nine years.
She joined her sisters Eileen, Cecilia and Maureen in the Southland team that won the inter-provincial championship in 1958 and 1959.
Southland won the title again this year after a gap of 49 years.
Her six sisters played netball for Southland and her brother was in the Southland rugby team.
But it has been as a coach that she has made her biggest impact.
This included two stints as the Southland senior coach, when she brought the province back into the first division in 1981 and 1991.
She still coaches intermediate and secondary school teams.
"It's what I do," she said. "I enjoy coaching the young future Silver Ferns."
Mrs Burns won the Watties Baked Beans Volunteer Coach of the Year award at regional and national level two years ago.
She has never been paid for coaching and starts her merchandising job early each morning to get time off for coaching.
But she admits it could not have been done without the help of her husband, Alan, who is a former Southland cricket representative and an Otago selector.
Her son Kevin played cricket for Otago.
She has three grandchildren.
Mrs Burns is a life member of the Invercargill Netball Centre and Netball Southland and was awarded an Invercargill Civic Honours award in 2007.
