Pulse add 17-year-old shooter to roster

11:26 am on 31 July 2015

The Central Pulse has added 17-year-old goal shoot Maia Wilson to its roster for the 2016 ANZ netball championship.

Pulse shooter Maia WilsonPhoto:PHOTOSPORT

The talented youngster has already represented New Zealand in both basketball and netball.

She played for the New Zealand basketball team last August, at the tender age of 16, and has been a member of the New Zealand Secondary Schools netball team for the last three years.

Last month, Wilson became the youngest player to trial for the Silver Ferns.

Her most recent outing was with the Under-23 Northern Zone team which won the national under-23 championship, where she shot 85 percent and earned a place in the Tournament Team.

Wilson's decision to concentrate on netball means the Mt Albert Grammar School student has had to turn her back on a very lucrative basketball scholarship at the University of Idaho.

She says it was a huge decision to play and focus on netball for the next year and it was also a big decision to move out of Auckland and join the Pulse.

Wilson says she'd like to hope and believe that there's still a possibility of her being a dual-international and she's proud enough to say that making the Tall Ferns was a great achievement in itself, so technically that's half of her goal done and ticked off.

Pulse Head Coach, Tanya Dearns, is extremely excited that the 192cm shooter is joining the team, saying she's excited by the maturity she shows both on and off court.

Dearns says her availability to the ball and determined demeanour to get on and do her job at shooter belies her youth and that is exciting.

This latest signing brings the number of confirmed players for the Pulse in 2016 to seven, with Katrina Grant, Phoenix Karaka, Elias Shadrock, Whitney Souness, Chelsea Pitman and Ameliaranne Wells already on the roster.