NZ U17 women's team out to make Kiwis proud
Making the whole nation of New Zealand proud will be the priority for its Women's U17 squad by displaying a never-give-up mantra regardless of the opponent on any given time.
Noumea (New Caledonia) - Making the whole nation of New Zealand proud will be the priority for its Women's U17 squad by displaying a never-give-up mantra regardless of the opponent on any given time.
“We are going to make you proud! We are going to play hard and have maximum effort,” those are the short but telling words of head coach Hernando Planells ahead of the FIBA U17 Oceania joust set to start this weekend in New Caledonia.
Giving pride, however, to the New Zealand community would be a steep mountain to climb for the U17 women's squad especially with formidable squads like Australia, Samoa, and Guam on their path in Group A.
Nevertheless, the women's U17 squad is ready and excited to test its mettle against the regional powerhouses.
“We look promising. It's going well in terms of shooting, conditioning and everything else we've been doing. We have really good young talent to work with and push forward,” added Planells.
“We are a balanced team all across the board. Right now we are all even-keel as we look to find the player who is going to pop-up.”
As a consistent force in the region, NZ surely wants to notch the gear higher especially coming off a 60-81 loss to Australia in the Gold Medal match of the 2017 Women's U17 Oceania tilt in Guam.
To get over the hump, they just have to identify their true identity marching into the Oceania championships which Planells is confident they are capable to do so.
“It’s about establishing our identity and our culture because I think whatever we run offensively and defensively we need to focus on being selfless, taking ownership, having a united front and understanding that we are playing for a legacy then it will all come together,” he added, opting also not to share the strength of their key players for a chance to shock their counterparts.
And more importantly, to finally break the spell and land a massive upset ax over regional rival Australia this time.
“Winning is something we want to do but we will be taking it game by game and step by step. There are a lot of things we try and tell them – did we improve this training session; did we get better in this practice? If we focus more on the process than the outcome then we are going to get better and better as it goes on. It’s really exciting,” Planells concluded.
FIBA