High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) has six centres around the country, none of which are based here, and for whatever reason we haven't developed our own.
During my travels with international teams around the world, and seeing first-hand the programmes, facilities and the athletes, I sense the great opportunity for us here in Hawke's Bay.
I marvel at the raw talent I see roll up in their school vans at the PGA for a bit of social school sport - but I can't help wonder, do they really know how much talent they have? And how good they can be? Do they have a genuine aspirational pathway? Something they can see, taste, and believe?
Just last week I visited HPSNZ environments in Cambridge, and AUT Millennium in Auckland. In Auckland it was great to see stars like Valerie Adams, Lisa Carrington, and even our Hawke's Bay girl Bobbi Gichard (highest ranked NZ-based swimmer, now based at school in Auckland) rubbing shoulders with the rest of the community - kids in development programmes, and others including the elderly training for general health or to be their best, whatever level that may be.
In terms of believing - you can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel up there, it's right in front of you!
Even some of their schools have high-performing facilities and systems - it's a fast-moving world, we really are in 2016.
Back to the Bay ... given Napier/Hastings combined is the equal fifth-biggest urban population in the country, we do produce plenty of talent. Furthermore, with our relative isolation athletes can't nip down the road to Wellington or Auckland, so require a local centre to support their dreams.
A system, of course, requires the people to provide services - and development of such an initiative means opportunities for local providers, therefore retaining excellence in the Bay and providing genuine pathways for the many excellent local EIT students coming through - locals, rather than experts coming in for an afternoon and returning to their home region.
Local people such as nutritionists, psychologists, life advisers, physical conditioners and sports medicine could all be providing for our budding athletes, and of course the rest of the community also able to access the same services and programmes - with the potential to attract aspiring athletes from other regions or parts of the world to study, live and train in the Bay.
With us so far from the national training centres, we need those visible pathways here in Hawke's Bay, from schools through a genuine multi-discipline sports facility, and on to HPSNZ programmes - belief.
Of course, not everyone wants to excel in sport but most would agree we want to promote being active for life, and within that broad life continuum we provide for those who want to make it to the top - not just for those individuals' sake, but also for the positive inspiration they can bring to their communities.
No one likes to see wasted talent, but I'm sure we have all seen cases of talent either losing their hope of making it, having to leave the region or choosing to give up their sport completely.
Therefore the prospect of a sport-wide and region-wide system, with a centre of excellence for athletes to strive for, collectively raising the bar and creating an environment that others in the community could also be a part of, would be great for the future of the region.
A system exposing raw talent to a high-performing culture. A culture promoting critical qualities such as work ethic, resilience, self-awareness and the ability to learn - thus enhancing the chance for Hawke's Bay talent to fulfil their dreams.
Building a properly aligned and co-ordinated system would take time, and in some ways would be an evolving mission to make sure we are keeping up with the rest of the country, the world, or even one day leading it.
Or maybe we're fine, and we just leave things as they are?
Or maybe I'm just suffering FOMO again? The fear our region's kids are missing out ...
¦Marcus Agnew leads Talent Development and the Pathway to Podium for Sport Hawke's Bay. He is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
