FLUHLER Stacey

General
BUS CRASH
In September 2011 at age 15, a school bus she was travelling on in New Zealand was hit from behind by a truck, sending the bus into an adjacent paddock. She was propelled into the seat in front, was briefly knocked unconscious, and still has identical scars below each of her knees. "I just remember waking up and [hearing what sounded like] millions of children crying. It was such a heart-breaking feeling and my first thought was, 'Ah, is the bus going to blow up?' But we hadn't tipped or anything, we were fine. I'd just watched too many movies! I just tried to help everyone that I could, got my little cousins off the bus. I didn't actually know I'd been injured until maybe 10 to 20 minutes later and my cousin was like, 'Oh aunty, you're bleeding from your legs', and I looked down and all this blood and flesh and everything was kind of hanging down. As soon as my mum got [to the hospital] and we looked at my legs covered in blood, I said, 'Mum, am I ever going to play sport again?'" (women.rugby, 03 Oct 2019; newsroom.co.nz, 22 May 2019)

FURTHER STUDIES
In addition to her bachelor's degree in health, sport and human performance from the University of Waikato, in 2019 she began a postgraduate diploma in business at Massey University in New Zealand. "I'm expanding my horizons for when my playing days are over." (newsroom.co.nz, 22 May 2019; waikato.ac.nz, 27 Sep 2018; LinkedIn profile, 01 Oct 2019)

HERITAGE
She is a descendant of the Ngai Tuhoe Maori tribe of New Zealand. She says she is passionate about encouraging young Maori women to realise their potential. "I always like going back home and showing them, 'Hey, I've represented our country'. My biggest goal in life is to inspire, and to show them that I can study whilst playing professional rugby is quite cool. I always tell them, 'Nothing worth having ever comes easy', so they've got to work really hard for whatever they want to do." (maoritelevision.com, 08 Jun 2015; teaomaori.news, 29 Dec 2017)