Luckily for Australian Chelsea D’Angelo, all her moves have worked out pretty well.
The 24-year-old is enjoying her time with the Southern Hoiho this season, making the most of her first time in New Zealand and relishing having Dunedin’s beaches close by.
"I’m loving it. It’s been a really great experience so far," D’Angelo said.
"We have a really nice, great team and good support staff — it’s been really good."
D’Angelo has played in various leagues back home in Australia and abroad, and Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa continued to challenge her.
"This league is really high quality.
"We come up against really great players, so it’s really great in that sense that it challenges me and pushes me, which I’m really enjoying."
She loved opening her game up to different styles of basketball and new initiatives, including Rapid League, a fast-paced short version of the traditional game that teams play before the Tauihi game.
D’Angelo has played plenty of minutes in the scaled-back game this year, and made an impact in Tauihi as well, which kept her on her toes.
"Rapid League is really innovative and definitely different. I mean, nowhere else in the world is doing it.
"It’s a lot of fun and I think it’s great that everyone gets a chance to play, which doesn’t always happen.
"Just been trying to figure out the best ways to attack that and obviously play in both games."
Her preparation also included how best to fuel her body in order to sustain her for two back-to-back games, but she felt she and the management team had been able to tackle it pretty well.
D’Angelo grew up playing basketball in country Victoria and joined the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL after high school.
She played for the Boomers, who were then coached by former Tall Ferns and Southland Sharks coach Guy Molloy, from 2018 to 2021, learning from veteran Australia Opals and international players.
D’Angelo, who represented Australia at the under-19 Junior World Cup in 2019, spent the 2021-22 season with the Southside Flyers in the WNBL while she was studying towards a law degree.
She then headed overseas to play for Treviso in the Italian LegaBasket Femminile for the 2023-24 season.
It was an amazing life experience for D’Angelo, connecting back to her roots through her Italian grandparents who immigrated to Australia.
"It was really nice to kind of go back to my heritage a little bit and get to experience what it’s actually like living in Italy, because it’s really different from when you just travel.
"[I] picked up a lot of things, learnt a lot from the people, just really tried to adapt to the lifestyle.
"I really, really enjoyed it."
She has brought all those experiences to Dunedin this season, where she has added valuable cameos to the Southern Hoiho roster.
Her team will be wanting to bounce back from their loss to the Whai last week when they host the Tokomanawa Queens at the Edgar Centre tomorrow.
The Queens have experience across the court and the Southern Hoiho, who lost 73-68 to the Queens in round one, will come up against WNBA player Jordan Horston for the first time this season.
Point guard Paige Bradley will also battle with Argentinian international Florencia Chagas, who missed the opener through illness.
"Obviously they’re one of the toughest match-ups in the league," D’Angelo said.
"We’re just really focusing on ourselves this week."
