Life wasn't a beach so Scarlett's back

BARRY HARCOURT/Southland Times

BACK IN: Anna Scarlett has been included in a 15-strong Silver Ferns squad to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.

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Somewhere in Brazil, lying on a mattress in an unfurnished apartment, wondering where her next meal was coming from, Anna Scarlett came to her crossroads.

One trail was through unforgiving terrain and wound, long and high, towards a distant Olympic mountaintop. The other, a much flatter, smoother, inviting tarmac, headed back towards familiar territory.

Scarlett, an ambitious young sportswoman, agonised over her decision. But in the end she made the call that her heart told her was the right one. She came home. She came back to netball.

After the best part of three years trudging the world beach volleyball circuit, the 27-year-old has finally given up her dream of playing at the Olympics.

Instead she has rededicated herself to a sport which she turned her back on in 2007.

"I wanted go to the Olympics and I wanted to medal for beach volleyball," says Scarlett as she prepares for her first Silver Ferns training camp for nearly four years. "That was definitely supposed to continue to 2012."

Supposed to. But for Scarlett something changed this year. She and her Tauranga-based partner, Susan Blundell, were in Brazil in their seemingly endless quest for points which would lift their world ranking inside the mythical Olympic cutoff.

"I was lying on a mattress on the floor of an unfurnished apartment that had been given to us to use, just thinking `what am I doing here?' That was where I decided to reconsider where we were heading."

Scarlett came to the realisation that she and Blundell needed so much more than they had to have any chance of making the Olympics, notably proper coaching and management, but, most of all, money to make it all happen.

"We needed to be overseas 95% of the time, rather than the 75% we were," reflected Scarlett. "I suppose I'll never know what might have happened, but what I do know is that lifestyle was not what I wanted."

Scarlett said she was proud of the progress she and Blundell made with so little assistance. They reached 33rd in the world. But you need to be inside the top 20 to have any shot at the Olympics.

"You should just be able to focus on your training and competition, but there was so much more we had do. Figuring out hotels, how we were going to get to training, where we were going to eat, what we were going to eat... it all adds up.

"In another life we definitely could have done it, but I started too late... if I'd gone straight from school to living that lifestyle it would have been easier."

She won't miss those itsy-bitsy bikinis.

"When I first started, I refused to wear a bikini. But you get used to it. It depends if people are there for the wrong reasons – that can be uncomfortable."

Anyway, the only thing she's looking to squeeze into now is the Ferns squad for the upcoming international season that includes tests against Australia and Jamaica and another tilt at Commonwealth Games gold.

Scarlett is strongly motivated as she enters phase two of her netball career. She believes she's physically and mentally stronger than when she walked away in 2007, having lost not just her direction, but her spot in the national squad.

So despite having already won a world title (in 2003) and Commonwealth gold (in 2006), Scarlett has unfinished business.

"I want to become a key player in the Silver Ferns," she says. "I wasn't 100% sure where I sat in the team when I left. I was there in '03 on the bench and that was where I needed to be with the starting lineup we had. In '06 I started the Games final but was subbed."

Scarlett feels beach volleyball makes her an even better netballer second time around.

"I'm really excited about what I've yet to achieve, and the new outlook I have on netball."

One thing that cannot be denied is just how exciting it could be to have Scarlett and Casey Williams finally both on court together in the heart of the Ferns defence.

- © Fairfax NZ News