KEY POINTS:
After taking a giant leap into the unknown last year to embark on her first season on the world beach volleyball circuit, Anna Scarlett is feeling much more relaxed about 2009.
Scarlett and playing partner Susan Blundell are entering their second year of a four-year campaign to
qualify for the Olympics in 2012.
The 25-year-old former Silver Fern decided to concentrate on her beach volleyball career after missing out on selection in the Ferns squad for the 2007 world champs.
But Scarlett hasn't looked back and has grown with every appearance on the world circuit, capping off a solid first year by being nominated for the rookie of the year award.
Back home, Scarlett and Blundell have won three of the four rounds to date at the New Zealand Beach Volleyball Tour. But they still have unfinished business to attend to at the NZ Open this weekend - the Kiwi pair have never won the Auckland event.
What are your career goals for 2009?
To increase our world ranking; we're currently sitting at 60th in the world and we'd kind of like to see ourselves around the 30 mark, so early 30s would be great. There's also a world champs this year where the top 48 teams in the world go so we'd love to qualify for that. We'll probably play a certain number of events to aim for that. But we don't find out until two weeks before the tournament if we make it, which is pretty tough.
What inspired you to embark on a career in sport?
It's a great way to meet people and stay fit and healthy. During high school I filled in for a social indoor volleyball team and fell in love with the game so I played indoor volleyball all through high school and made it to the New Zealand women's team and then an indoor player asked me if I wanted to play beach one summer with her and I said
"sure" and fell in love with beach volleyball. I definitely had huge aspirations in netball and although one of those dreams was crushed when I got dropped a couple of years ago I felt I'd experienced a lot and I just felt that move to beach would mean I'd get to see a lot more countries and a new level of sport.
When you were 13 were there any other sports you fancied yourself as a future star in?
Netball was my focus when I was younger. I suppose with the media, as a young New Zealander you grow up aspiring to be a Silver Fern and guys grow up wanting to be an All Black or to play for the Kiwis. So netball was the sport I wanted to succeed in the most, just because I didn't really see the opportunities in volleyball.
Describe your job.
Basically Suse and I mix our roles in the team - we don't quite specialise as a front or back court player. We both experience each position, which is really great for our game. In terms of our other roles, the luxury of playing in a team sport like netball or rugby is that you have a manager who organises all your accommodation and food and transport, whereas Suse and I have to do that ourselves.
We take turns in who is going to organise all the accommodation, so she'll do Japan and I'll do Barcelona and we organise it that way. I suppose I took more of a role in managing the money - probably because I'm more of a gorse pockets, so I manage the money a lot more - and Sue probably managed more of the correspondence with some of the contacts that we stay in touch with.
What is the best thing about your job?
I would say the amount of life experience you get with beach volleyball is invaluable. You get to go to a number of different countries and experience the cultures.
But also the dynamics in a beach volleyball team really are like a relationship - you've got to learn how your partner thinks, how they play best and how to live with someone on the road for 6-8 months of the year. It's really character-building.
And the worst?
Living out of a suitcase. It's really hard to play a tournament and then not have a base to go back to. New Zealand is so far away, you can't just skip home and back to your own bed and chill out before the next tournament, we're always on the go.
Favourite venue?
I really like Barcelona and Marseilles, they were beautiful venues to play at.
How much control do you have over whether your team wins or loses?
In beach volleyball you actually have a lot of control. You touch the ball every rally, so even if you're not getting served on, you still have a chance to put up a good set or make a good shot and call for your partner so you actually have a lot of input.
I don't think you can ever say one person lost the game because you both have a chance to "better the ball" as we say in volleyball. The thing about beach volleyball is even though you're in a team, there's only two of you so it's got the team aspect but it's also got a huge individual aspect as well. I love the fact that you can work on your own game but you still learn how to be a team member and how to make a team work. And you can't get subbed in beach volleyball, so I really like that.
Do you feel your sport gets the public attention it deserves?
I think beach volleyball exposure is growing a lot in New Zealand, it's definitely got a little bit of a party vibe to it and it is marketed on the sort of sexy side of it, which kind of annoys me.
But I suppose that comes with the territory. I just hope people come along and realise that it is actually quite a tough game - it's not easy to control the ball on the sand.
I hope media coverage continues to get better; we've got a lot of potential for great players in New Zealand but at the moment because we don't have the programmes and funding in place, athletes are doing it out of their own pocket for the love of the sport.
Proudest achievement in your career?
It would probably be Commonwealth Games gold with the Silver Ferns. And so far with beach volleyball it would be getting nominated for rookie of the year on the world tour. I was pretty stoked with that.
I didn't win - there were three winners and then a few others got nominated - but I was stoked to get a mention because it's voted by the players so I felt pretty proud that somebody thought that I was doing pretty well over there.
And your worst moment?
Getting dropped from the Silver Ferns before the 2007 world champs. It was very, very hard.
What's the one career ambition you want to realise before you retire?
I want to make it to the 2012 Olympic Games and I would like to medal there. But just making it to the Olympics is a big goal of mine.
Going to the Commonwealth Games, you get a taste of what it's like living in the village and being surrounded by top athletes and the Olympics is a step above that so that would be amazing.
If you didn't work in sport, what would you be doing?
I've got a physiotherapy degree and I'm currently studying a certificate in human development because I'd really like to specialise in paediatric physiotherapy, so that's probably what road I'd go down.
Who do you most admire and why?
I don't have one person who I think is the bees knees. There's a number of athletes I look up to and really respect in terms of what they've achieved.
In terms of beach volleyball it would be Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, but especially Kerri Walsh because she's sort of my build so I'm always in awe of what she's capable of.
THE CV
2002 - First made the Silver Ferns squad, joining the team at the Manchester Commonwealth Games as a training partner.
2003 - Was a member of the Silver Ferns side that won the World Championships in Jamaica.
2006 - Played against Australia in the Commonwealth Games netball final, taking home gold.
2007 - After competing on the New Zealand Beach Volleyball tour for a number years, Scarlett teams up with Kiwi number one Susan Blundell.
2007 - Missed selection for the Silver Ferns tour to England in May and was again overlooked for the World Championship squad, prompting her decision to retire from netball to pursue her dream of representing New Zealand in beach volleyball at the 2012 Olympics.
2008 - Scarlett and Blundell embark on the world circuit, making the main draw in three tournaments. Scarlett is nominated for the tour's rookie of the year award.
