The future of Northland's Dannielle Dephoff has received a boost with her selection in New Zealand's secondary school netball team which played England earlier this month. Photo / Netball New Zealand
The future of Northland's Dannielle Dephoff has received a boost with her selection in New Zealand's secondary school netball team which played England earlier this month. Photo / Netball New Zealand
When the Silver Ferns look to defend their World Cup title in South Africa in 2023, there might be a Northland face among them.
That's if Bay of Islands College (BOIC) student Dannielle Dephoff can build on her experiences as a member of the 12-strong New Zealand secondary schools squad which took on the England under-19 team in Auckland earlier this month.
The squad, which was whittled down from 50 players after a training camp in January, went through a five-day camp ending on July 4 which featured extensive training sessions for the first few days.
Dephoff, more accustomed to wing-defence, quickly adapted to the centre position in her five-day camp with the national secondary school team in Auckland. Photo / Netball New Zealand
The New Zealand and England teams were then mixed to play netball's five-a-side format, 'Fast5', before playing several friendly regulation seven-a-side matches.
Dephoff, 17, was originally selected in a squad of 22 alongside Whangārei Girls' High School student Jessie Taylor, but after Taylor's omission from the final squad, Dephoff was left to play with people she barely knew.
"I knew one person who used to live up north, but I was really nervous," she said.
The defender turned midcourter said she first knew of her potential national selection at last year's national under-19 netball tournament in Tauranga. Despite suffering an ankle injury, Dephoff took the court on the final day of play and clearly impressed selectors.
After being chosen from thousands of young netballers, Dephoff continued to impress and kept her place in the squad throughout 2019 until she made the final 12.
"It was crazy, then getting to the 50-player squad, I was amazed, I was like, 'how did I do that?'," she said.
Dephoff (right) has been an influential member of Whangārei premier netball team, The Bubz, as they look to secure this year's league title. Photo / Adam Pearse
As this was Dephoff's first involvement in national level netball, she was naturally nervous but said she quickly accustomed to the workload despite being out of her favoured position, wing-defence.
"Throughout the week, I thought I improved. I was a bit nervous because I started at centre but I started getting used to it.
"I learned a lot from not only the coaches but also my teammates, they knew a lot about the game that I didn't and in my first [BOIC] game [on Thursday], I loved it because I took what I learned and helped my teammates which was good."
Dephoff said a definite highlight for the squad was to have their playing dresses presented by the Silver Ferns before they left for the World Cup in England.
Dephoff, who was given her dress by New Zealand midcourter Shannon Saunders, said it was inspiring to see the Ferns triumph on the biggest stage.
"It was amazing how the older players were at the end of the final, they were jumping for joy and that's really motivating, you could tell they wanted it and all the hard work they'd done."
Dephoff, 17, has her sights set on breaking into the partially-televised Beko Netball League, based in Auckland. Photo / Netball New Zealand
Now hoping to secure a Whangārei premier netball competition crown as part of 'The Bubz', Dephoff said Auckland's Beko Netball League was her next target to continue her journey in the sport.
"It really motivated me to get going and think about what my future looks like and where I'm going to be in a few years, hopefully playing netball."
