KEY POINTS:
Before she sends down her first bowl at the World Bowls Championships in Christchurch in January, Kelsey Cottrell is assured of superstar status. But for the tardiness of selectors on this side of the Tasman, the talented 17-year-old could have been playing in black rather than Australia's green and gold.
The Noosa-based youngster has taken her sport by storm with the Australian selectors brave enough to hand her the coveted singles spot on the sport's biggest stage. One must wonder, facing the same dilemma, whether the selectors here would have shown the same confidence.
"Around the time of the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Championships which were to be played in Melbourne I was definitely interested in suggestions I could play for New Zealand," said Cottrell from her home on the Sunshine Coast. "Had they selected me, I would have moved back to New Zealand. They didn't. Things happen for a reason.
"I'm definitely not torn now. I'm happy to play for Australia as long as they want me."
Born in Auckland, and a pupil at Panmure Bridge Primary School when she crossed the Tasman as a 9-year-old, Cottrell first played bowls as a 12-year-old.
But it was a sport she definitely had little interest in as she played tennis competitively.
"I told mum bowls was a sport I was never, never going to play. I saw it as a social thing," said Cottrell. "But slowly I warmed to it. I met some older people and learned a lot about it."
The rest is history.
As a 12-year-old and in her first season on the green, she won her state's junior (under-18) singles.
"I came out of nowhere but in going to the state titles I realised a lot of young people were playing bowls," said Cottrell. "It was a big deal at my club."
Her success quickly captured the attention of those who matter and led Australia's head coach Cameron Curtis to say he believes she has the ability to influence the future direction of the sport on and off the green.
"She can change the face of the game," said Curtis. "What's phenomenal about Kelsey is her maturity for someone so young."
Cottrell was selected in the Queensland squad as a 14-year-old. Two years later she was in the senior Australian team playing in the triples at the 2005 Asia Pacific Championships - the year she won the Australian junior singles.
She has not looked back.
Cottrell was in Christchurch for the Asia Pacific Championships earlier this year, winning silver and bronze playing the triples and fours.
Now ranked the No 1 singles player in Australia, she was named in an initial seven-strong squad for the World Bowls Championships. There were anxious times before the selectors named their final five.
"I was thinking Julie [Noosa Heads clubmate Julie Keegan] would play singles," said Cottrell. "I definitely did not want to think I would make the five and certainly not as the singles player."
But when the names were read out, the teenager was handed the singles spot. She will also play triples with Keegan. Long-time Australian singles representative Karen Murphy will skip their pair and four.
Cottrell and the rest of the team have been in Christchurch for a four-day training camp - the first of several expeditions planned before the World Bowls Championships start on January 12.
