All six New Zealand domestic franchises are gathered in Otaki for a pre-season tournament beginning today and running until Sunday.
For sisters Te Huinga Reo and Te Paea Selby-Rickit the tournament will be a homecoming, having grown up in the town.
''I guess for most people they love [having their family and friends watch them] and it's awesome,'' Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit said.
''My parents come to a lot of our games, so I'm used to it. But playing in front of my friends and the people I grew up around, because they know you well they tend to rip on you a bit and all that kind of stuff, try to put you off. But I'm used to it, so it's going to be interesting.''
She did not get to go home much during netball season, as it required two flights from Invercargill. However she returned in the off-season, as she was completing a teaching degree at Te Wananga O Raukawa, the town's tertiary institution. The institution sponsors the Central Pulse, which is hosting the tournament.
It would be played at the Te Wananga O Raukawa recreational centre. The sisters' mother, Mereana Selby, was the head of the institution and had been pivotal behind organising the tournament and getting the teams to town.
Te Huinga Reo said she had played there three years ago with the Pulse when the Steel and Mainland Tactix both came for a preseason hit out. However this would be the first time all six teams would have been together in this type of tournament.
She said moving to Invercargill from Otaki aged 16 had been a shock. Otaki was a small, Maori-based town and she had attended a small Maori school. It was the type of place everyone knew everyone else and she had good memories of swimming in the river and at the beach.
When she was spotted playing in the NPC by then Southern Sting coach Robyn Broughton, she jumped at the chance to move south. She attended Verdon College and said the southern city seemed huge and she had been impressed by things such as it having a McDonald's and Warehouse.
She was there for six years, before following Broughton to the Pulse. Having returned to the south last year, she said it had a been a different preseason to normal.
''We were lucky enough to be able to go over to the Sunshine Coast, because of our connection with [former Steel coach Noeline Taurua], and that was amazing. The only down side was that we didn't get our Ferns back when they were gone for a month.
''So that was really hard, because as you know there's only 10 players in the [teams] now. Luckily for us, we have a few Ferns in our team, so it was like having half the team away.
''But since they've been back its been full steam ahead and its been awesome to have the whole team together.''
The team was coming off impressive performances against the Tactix in Dunedin last weekend, although she thought there was still plenty to work on. First and foremost was developing combinations and getting used to the short turn-arounds which would be a feature of this year's competition.
The side plays its first game at 4pm today against the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic. It then faces the Pulse at noon on Saturday and the Northern Mystics at 10am on Sunday.
