Beach volleyball: Scarlett heads to the beach

In between playing top-level netball and beach volleyball, Anna Scarlett is trying to get a degree at Otago University. Picture / BOP Times

For Anna Scarlett this year meant a start for the Silver Ferns for the first time since her selection in 2002, plus a season that began in January and ended with the exhausting series against Australia last month.

So a break might have been in order. But Scarlett has headed straight into camp for the beach volleyball tour, training twice a day at Mt Maunganui with other Kiwi competitors who will face some stiff international opposition next month.

"I love it. It's refreshing to make the switch," said the 21-year-old as she enjoyed a few days off at her parents' Karamea dairy farm on the West Coast.

Scarlett made the New Zealand indoor volleyball team in 2000, as she was finishing seventh form at St Margaret's College in Christchurch.

She credits the boarding-school environment for giving her some of the drive to achieve in sport.

"My parents [Ross and Nova] have got it in them - Dad loves a challenge - but because of the distance I guess they didn't have the opportunities that I have."

Scarlett came to attention as a netballer when she shifted to Dunedin to start a physiotherapy degree at Otago University.

Her success in the sport has interrupted her study ever since and she thanks the school of physio for its patience with her completing the required six-week blocks of clinical work - she's always missing them because of netball.

She expects to take until 2006 to graduate, partly because Netball NZ has put a four-year challenge in front of the Silver Ferns with a TV deal that guarantees jobs for players. Now it's a matter of holding her spot.

"Netball have been very understanding about my involvement in volleyball. They see that it's a passion of mine and that it refreshes me."

After 16 tests, Scarlett aims for a long career with the Ferns.

"Being a professional athlete is the dream job."

She teams up with 20-year-old Rebecca Reidy from New Plymouth. Reidy has three national secondary schools titles to her name plus a fifth placing at the 2001 Youth Olympics in Sydney.

The week after the netball series finished, Scarlett started the national beach volleyball training programme with the country's most experienced player, Craig Seuseu, and the most promising in Jason Lochhead and Kirk Pitman.

The latter two have played internationally this year and improved their ranking from 90th to 38th, just outside the 32nd that will get them a regular start in World Tour events. They made it to the main draw in four tour events this year and won silver at the Asian Games in September. Their ranking is the highest by New Zealanders since Seuseu and Tom Eade in 1999.

But 20-year-old Lochhead has been troubled by a leg injury and will miss the first three rounds of the 2005 New Zealand tour, at New Plymouth's Ngamotu Beach on January 5-6, Wellington's Oriental Parade on January 8-9 and at Ohope Beach on January 12-13.

Pitman will play with Seuseu at those rounds, with Lochhead expected back for the last events, at Mt Maunganui on January 15-16 and at the Auckland Tennis Centre on January 21-23, where Seuseu will partner Russell Watson.

The best overseas competitors in the men's events are veteran Australian Julian Prosser - 15 years as a pro-player - with fellow 32-year-old Sascha Heyer from Switzerland; Germans Christoph Deickmann and Julius Brink, who were fifth at the Athens Olympics; and South Africans Casey Augoustides, who finished ninth at Athens, and partner Colin Pocock.

In the women's events, Brazilian sisters Carolina Soberg and Maria Salgado are the main attraction. Carolina at 17 is the world under-21 champion, the title her 21-year-old sister held in 2002.

Scarlett and Reidy aim to finish the tour ranked as New Zealand's top pairing. To do that they have to beat Lucy Todd and Susan Blundell, who won two events on the New Zealand tour last January.

Best Kiwi hopes

Men: Kirk Pitman and Craig Seuseu first three events/ Pitman and Jason Lochhead plus Seuseu and Russell Watson last two; Hayden Jones and Lefu Leaupepe.

Best winning chance: Julian Prosser (Aust) and Sascha Heyer (Swtz).

Women: Lucy Todd and Susan Blundell, Anna Scarlett and Rebecca Reidy.

Best winning chance: Brazilians Carolina Soberg and Maria Salgado.

More FM Tour

January 5-6 Ngamotu Beach, New Plymouth

January 8-9 Oriental Parade, Wellington

January 12-13 Ohope Beach

January 15-16 Mt Maunganui

January 21-23 ASB Tennis Centre, Auckland.