Throwing down the gauntlet in a confrontational manner isn't in player/coach Jeda Bartlett's genetic makeup but suffice it to say she's immensely proud of her band of women doing the unthinkable in beating perennial champions Otane Thirsty Whale 51-46 in the final of last season's Super 6.
"I still can't believe that we won it," she says with a laugh on the account that the previous season they didn't even make the grade.
Bartlett puts that down to a grading system which promises to reward those who "turn up" at the court on any given night.
That sense of tribal duty, where everyone shoulders responsibility without supervision knowing they are integral to the collective cause, is the difference in her eyes.
"All the girls were kind of accountable for themselves so we all had a lot of input in the team so everyone did their part and we gelled."
Wearing the target on their backs is something Bartlett likes to think her charges will become accustomed to, if they haven't already, because that's the mantra throughout the year for the Outkast club which grooms touch teams as well.
It's a given they want to defend their historic maiden crown but staving off relegation by ensuring they don't freefall to the fourth rung in their pool in the first stage of the competition is the starting point.
Outkast are excited about playing this season rather than agonising over the grading games. It helped immensely to compete in the invitational Central Zone competition in Palmerston North in February.
"It was a good eye-opener with just the intense level of netball where every game felt like a final," she says although they haven't done much while waiting for the grading process. They did play against their second grade side, Outkast Evolution Fitness, though.
At 32, Bartlett and captain Amanda Palmer are the oldest while the rest are in their late teens or early 20s. Napier Girls' High School pupil, midcourter Shyan Murphy, 14, is the baby of the team who have seven returning from last season.
"We're gutted to lose [those players] who fit in well last year and made a huge impact to our team because they are young and super-fit but we've picked up a couple of other players and we'll just have to make do with what we have."
Outkast are welcoming back defender Laine Robinson, 20, from studies in Rotorua.
She hastens to emphasise other teams also will lose high school talent from Hastings Girls' High School and NGHS whose entry has turned it into Super 8 this winter.
"It should even out the clubs a bit more, I think, and the school teams should be quite strong," she says as Annemarie Kupa leaves Otane to coach her daughter's NGHS team while sister Tammy takes over the reins.
The eyebrow-raising shuffle in the pack is the elevation of Hastings High School Old Girls' Spicers Keas at the expense of their first team, HHSOG Proactive Huias, when the dust settled as 12 teams vied for four places in the grading stage.
Outkast, who were guaranteed a berth with Otane as the top two from last year, open their account against HGHS at 7.45pm today on court No 3.
The culture of belonging stems from the Bartletts' St Auybn St gym, Evolution Fitness Hastings, where netball and touch seedlings are propagated.
She and husband Anaru, who has just returned from winning gold with his team at the World Masters Games in Auckland, are the architects of the blueprint.
Anaru musters the junior touch modules and runs it so she opportunistically sounds out prospective netballers.
They have set up a 14-member sport academy of intermediate school-age children who attend 5.30am sessions where they are fed leadership skills as well as mentored and counselled before engaging in a crossfit drill. Outkast club is an affiliate of Crossfit HB.
"We then feed them breakfast and drop them off to school," she says, adding netball and touch seasons provide that continuity.
The about 150-member gym is for the benefit of their daughters, Reiley, 12, at Hastings Intermediate, and Ryan, 6, of Mayfair School.
Why the name Outkast, though?
Apparently its origins go back to Anaru's family touch club name.
"It's because when they used to play touch years and years ago people didn't want to play them because they were good so they were treated like outcasts," says Bartlett with a laugh.
However, she doesn't want her netball team to be of that mould.
"It's because nobody will want to play with you and the competition will get quite boring," she says although happy to take in her stride the eventuality that others will want to knock them off their perch should they rule the Super 8 roost like Otane.
TONIGHT'S GAMES
For the opening shield round of the Super 8 competition today:
Pool A
■ 6.15pm: Hastings High School Old Girls' Spicers Keas v All In Elusive on PGA 2.
Umpires: J Varcoe, T Douglas.
■ 7.45pm: Outkast Optimise Physio v Hastings Girls' High School Senior A on PGA 2.
Umpires: A Waretini, A Williams.
Pool B
■ 6.15pm: Otane Thirsty Whale v Napier Girls' High School Senior A on PGA 3.
Umpires: T Gardiner, K Ives.
■ 7.45pm: Central Sports Vet Services HB v Havelock North House Of Travel Kauri on PGA 3.
Umpires: H Lewis, N Corbett.
Reserve officials: 6.15pm, N Corbett; 7.45pm, 2 T Douglas, 3 T Gardiner.
