Starting young to score big
For the past six weeks, the Northern Mystics have been going through the pre-season grind as they build towards next year's transtasman league.
Every morning from 7 to 8am, the players can be found slogging out on the track or in the gym, developing their endurance for the gruelling season ahead.It's all old hat for most in the team - a mundane but necessary reality of being an elite netballer.
But for 17-year-olds Kayla Cullen and Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick it is a new and exciting experience.
The unheralded pair are set to be thrust in to the world of semi-professional netball next year.
Mystics coach Te Aroha Keenan is taking extra care to ensure the youngsters are prepared to make the massive step up.
It means daily strength and conditioning sessions with the team's trainer, twice-weekly skills sessions, appointments with nutritionists and team-building exercises. Despite an aversion to early morning starts, Cullen is finding the new regime "tough, but fun". "It's been pretty hard but it's getting easier," said the Auckland teen, who has not long finished high school.
"I always trained heaps last year, but not at this intensity. I kind of just did my own thing last year but now it's more structured and I have to follow a programme and make sure I do it, otherwise I'll get in trouble."
The athletic shooter said it has been a relief to have Tone-Fitzpatrick alongside her in the team, also experiencing everything for the first time.
Tone-Fitzpatrick, who has just finished Year 12 at St Cuthberts College and will be deputy head girl there next year, is a promising defender. "If I didn't have her I think I would feel a bit lost. It's nice to have someone my age who is new to it all as well," said Cullen. But Cullen said she was also enjoying the opportunity to train alongside her Mystics teammates, who include Silver Ferns Temepara George, Maria Tutaia, Joline Henry and Larissa Willcox. "They're all really helpful and encouraging."
The inclusion of the pair in the Mystics line-up appears to part of a wider trend among the New Zealand franchises, which have this year proven more open to taking a punt on young players.
