Basketball: Belief in leap of faith consolidates US dream

ON GUARD: Khaedin Taito is off to University of Southern California on a basketball scholarship. PHOTO/Duncan Brown

FOR AS long as Khaedin Taito can remember she has had a phobia of venturing into the unknown.

Not that it's peculiar to the budding basketball talent in any sense because scores of people often identify with the challenges of dipping one's toe into subliminal waters.

"I didn't want to play basketball and at my first trainings I used to cry a lot," says the Hawke's Bay teenager of her pre-school years.

"All I remember was that I was scared of the unknown," she says.

But a few training sessions later as a 5-year-old in Queensland, Australia, Taito enjoyed everything the code offered to progress to Hoop Heaven.

So much so that the girl who was born in Bridge Pa, Hastings, has booked a flight to the University of Southern California in August on a five-year contract to study and play basketball.

And oh, for the record, she had to break down that mental barrier once more to leave her comfort zone.

"I was especially scared of going into the unknown but now I'm more excited and really eager to go," says Taito, whose fears were allayed after she travelled to the United States to meet her prospective teammates and coaches, including head coach Cynthia Cooper, a WNBA Hall of Famer, "who was pretty up there".

"Cynthia told me when I go up there my challenge isn't to come down to their level but to raise the level.

"I was a little scared of having that [responsibility] on my shoulder but after meeting them I'm now more excited and confident."

To put the former New Zealand under-17 and under-18 representative's talent in perspective, Taito received 100 American scholarship offers when recruitment agency Custom College Recruiting put basketball video footage out there for universities to peruse.

"It's really hard to pick one when colleges are saying the same things such as offering full scholarships and giving similar basketball and study programmes."

Taito, entered the college process in January, didn't confirm her choice until she felt at ease.

"It pretty much came down to having a good feeling about the place and my spirituality," says the 17-year-old, who is a devout Latter Day Saints Mormon.

Southern California University's gesture of changing training days from Sundays (Mormons don't engage in worldly pursuits on their Sabbath) proved pivotal among other factors.

"They are a really family-orientated college," Taito says of the varsity team who have five overseas players and won the division club conference league two years ago.

No doubt she is under no illusions about the significance of ensuring her academic pursuits - still in the gestation phase - are up there with dribbling, shimmying and faking with the ball. She's tossing up between law and anaesthesiology at a varsity that will offer her a private tutor for each subject.

Pulling out of national rep duties last year to ensure her final-year high school grades didn't suffer is a good snapshot of where her mindset is.

Taito, who graduated from high school in Ipswich, arrived in Bridge Pa from Brisbane about two months ago with her parents and five younger siblings, after leaving here as a 2-year-old.

The Hawke's Bay Under-19 player suspects she's inherited the basketball genes from her mother, Tinaka, a Maori, because her father, Iatapa, a Samoan, is sold on rugby.

Tinaka, also a triathlete in her heyday, received basketball coaching from Wyn Smiler.

Taito's American varsity likes her versatility as a guard who is equally adept at shooting, assisting and driving attacks.

"They want me to be the No1 and also a small forward who can post on little guards."

A right-hander, she opts for a leftie's stance on the court.

"When I was 5 I was so un-co I used to shoot with my left and my right but my parents made me choose one so I picked left."

Her parents, who are "dorm parents" at Te Aute College, regularly impress on her the importance of taking ownership in life.

That extended to finding the US$800 ($1160) fees required to put her feelers out, and, in hindsight, Taito appreciates it was well worth investing her hard-earned money from waitressing in Brisbane.

Hawks player/coach Paora Winitana and the Bay academy, which he helped established with Tall Blacks coach Paul Henare, have been instrumental in honing her skills lately.

So has academy coach Rhandell Tuala-Fata, who is her aunty, since Taito's parents decided to return home so their children can enrich their culture at Bridge Pa where her mother grew up.

Taito, who went through the Ipswich rep and Queensland State age-group teams while her parents led a nomadic life eking out a living, harbours dreams of representing New Zealand as a Tall Fern all the way to the Olympics.

While in the US, she wants to sign a contract to compete in the WNBA.

"My mum's hoping we'll all go to Southern California University [where] all us girls will play basketball and my two younger brothers will become American football players," she says.