The 16-year-old had accepted a three-year scholarship to St Paul’s High School in New Hampshire.
But that did not turn out to be the opportunity she was hoping for, so she is back at Trinity Catholic College and will lead the Otago challenge in the New Zealand inter-districts teams championships in Dunedin this weekend.
"It was hard for me to travel during the offseason and they didn’t train as much as I expected," she said.
"And it was just very expensive to keep doing something that wasn’t what I thought it was."
Bannister stayed three months before returning home.
The Otago No1 is used to playing older opponents but this weekend will be the first time she has competed as a senior at a national competition.
She won the under-15 New Zealand title two years ago and has also won the South Island and North Island under-17 titles.
She will compete in the under-17 national championships in October.
The Dunedin teenager is a player to watch but this weekend will present her team with a steep challenge.
"It’s going to be tough work for our team in general," she said.
"We’re one of the bottom seeds, so we’re not expected to win. But it’s exciting for us to even have a team in because ... it’s been a while since we’ve even had the opportunity to enter a team.
"And this competition, being in Dunedin and in the South Island, has given us that chance because usually these events are run in the North Island.
"Everyone’s really looking forward to it."
Otago open their campaign against Waikato today and Bannister is looking forward to her match-up against Sophie Hodges, who has competed at the world junior championships and has collected national titles.
"I’m really excited to get the chance to play her because I haven’t played her before. That will be great. She’s just recently aged out of juniors."
Bannister has plans to turn professional when she leaves school. But university studies are also on the cards.
"I want to do sports journalism, that’s kind of my goal."
