Tito delighted to make Tall Ferns

Northland 18-year-old Jamie-Lee Tito was hard at work when her mum texted her to say she was in the New Zealand Junior Tall Ferns Under-19 basketball team.

"Everyone knew before I did," she laughed.

The Traffic Safe Ltd employee said she was over the moon when she heard of her selection in the team following trials in Tauranga, at the end of January.

While she was delighted with her inclusion, she was also a little anxious at the news that coach Sean Fuller wanted her to play point guard in the Junior Tall Ferns upcoming fixtures.

"I normally play 2-3 (shooting guard or small forward), and they usually play the small, fast girls at point guard, but apparently they might be too small against the Aussies," Tito, who stands at 1.68m, said.

Fuller spotted Tito playing point guard for the Te Tai Tokerau women's team at last year's division three nationals and obviously liked her style.

It is a massive year for the Junior Tall Ferns, who will be taking on the Australians in a best of three-game series on September 20-22 at Porirua, to battle over the Oceania qualifying berth for the Under-19 World Championships in Greece, in January 2013.

Ahead of those games, the Junior Tall Ferns will travel to China for a Four Nations Tournament (the other teams attending have yet to be decided), from April 25-May 7, as part of their build up, and the team is also looking at competing at a tournament in the USA, in July.

Tito, who made the Emerging Junior Tall Ferns (Under-17s) in 2010, is excited about this huge opportunity, and intends putting in the hard yards, doing her own individual training in Whangarei, before joining the rest of the team in camp before they head to China.

Also a talented netballer, Tito said she would keep playing both codes, but pour more energy into basketball.

The former Whangarei Girls High student was the only player from Northland selected in the Junior Tall Ferns, and the Whangarei basketball community has already offered to help raise the $10,000 needed for Tito's campaign with the Junior Tall Ferns this year.

"The basketball community have been great - they only just heard the news and are already asking what they can do to help raise some money," Kim Wells, Tito's mother, said.

Tito also plays in the Super Basketball League for Portland Rangers and will trial for the Te Tai Tokerau Phoenix Women's team playing the Women's Basketball League, run by Basketball New Zealand.