Netball: Reaching the heights

The Silver Ferns' newest member, Debbie White, lists Lance Armstrong's Every Second Counts as her favourite book.

Although White hasn't faced the same adversity that the cancer-surviving Armstrong has, there are certain themes in the book she can probably relate to. Like beating the odds and seeing each day as an opportunity for excellence.

Many players make the Silver Ferns at 18 or 19 but White's inclusion last week came almost three months after her 28th birthday.

"It's something I have always hoped for, I never really knew whether it was a realistic goal or not," she said.

"But getting picked as a training partner [which saw her travel to Jamaica and Australia with the Silver Ferns] made me believe that it was achievable."

Now she wants a place in the run-on side.

"The way I have set my goals at the moment is to just get settled in the team and try and make my mark there."

White grew up on a sheep farm just out of Balclutha.

The oldest of three children - her sister Jeanette competes in half-marathons and her brother Geoffrey is in the Army's 100s club, which is the top 5 per cent of fitness - White spent her summer holidays helping her father on the farm whether it was feeding out or "generally acting as one of the dogs chasing after sheep all day."

She starting playing netball at primary school where she occupied the goal defence position.

Standing 1.81m tall, White said she stopped growing when she was 12. "I was very tall when I was young."

The first representative team she made was the South Otago under-15s which meant a two-hour drive to training sessions.

"I wasn't very good until I was 15 or 16," she concedes. "I was too tall and uncontrolled."

She remained a goal defence right up until her first year in the Rebels where coach Georgie Salter moved her first to wing defence and then to centre.

Some might find the move from defence to the roaming centre position daunting, but White loved it.

"It is so much better, you get much more involved in the game. You still have the defensive part that I love but you have also got the attacking part as well."

She said her height had its advantages, and its drawbacks.

"Other players can probably see me better too but sometimes, because my partners are a lot shorter, I think I get called by the umpires more as well. I just have to be careful with my distances and things."

Despite her height, White is also quite fast, which is something she has had to work on.

Her long wait for national selection is more a result of New Zealand's abundance of midcourt talent rather than White's lack of ability.

Over the past five years New Zealand has had so many good midcourt players that even the likes of Adine Wilson, Anna Rowberry and Temepara George have been been cut at various stages.

White's big break came last year with the trip to Jamaica. She then joined the team in Australia this year before the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games.

"I think going on those two trips has probably been the most beneficial thing that happened."

Not only was she introduced to the Silver Fern environment, she was also exposed to lots of styles of play.

"Obviously they play a lot different from the Rebels and I haven't had a lot of exposure to different styles. That was probably the biggest thing."

Although she was always on the brink of selection, playing in the underachieving Rebels side (who finished a disappointing second to last in this year's National Bank Cup) wasn't exactly helpful. But her commitment would have impressed the selectors.

White, who was handed the Rebels captaincy following the withdrawal of Angela Mitchell, said the team's court structure was good, they just lacked finishing.

"It wasn't too bad, we knew everything else was going quite well. We were waiting for those shots to go in but they never did."

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken sent her a text message two days out from the team announcement saying she wanted to have a chat.

"I was thinking, 'Oh no, this is going to be a Dear John-type chat'. But then she rang half an hour later and told me that I'd got in."

Such was her excitement that White told Aitken she'd walk from Mosgiel to Auckland for the announcement if there were no flights available.

A PE and English teacher at Mosgiel's Taieri College, White likes running, reading and hanging out with friends in her spare time.

She's had plenty of support from the college although the school holidays have prevented her from catching up with her pupils, who follow her career avidly.

"Some of the boys are a bit cheeky, especially when we were losing by so much," she said of the Rebels season.

But now their teacher is a Silver Fern and preparing to take on Australia, the students have the perfect role model.

"I am looking forward to it [the two-test series]. I am a little nervous but more excited than anything else.

"They are second in the world, you can't get any better than that ... well, except for us of course."

Debbie White

Positions: C, WA, WD

Height: 1.81m

Born: Balclutha, April 23, 1978

Occupation: Secondary school teacher

Playing history: Silver Ferns Squad 2005-2006; NZA Squad 2003-2004; National Bank Cup, Otago Rebels 1999-2006; NPC, Otago 2002-2005, Southland 2000-2001