As a result, Taylah Wynne was rewarded for her hard work with her first start of the season and second in the South East Australian Basketball League.

She jumped at the opportunity by producing her best performance for Ballarat Skoda Rush in a victory over Albury Wodonga on Saturday, collecting 16 points and four rebounds.

The young shooter proved she thrives off a challenge.

“We walked into the change rooms, I saw my name on the board and I did get a bit nervous but it was really great… I loved it,” she said.

“I gained a lot of confidence from that game, but I just went out there trying to do my role. 

“Eric wanted me to play the point guard and do that well, so that is what I really tried to do and then the scoring just came with it.”

Having grown up watching previous Ballarat teams battle it out on home court in SEABL clashes, Wynne still surprises herself with the realisation she is now playing at that same elite level.

“I always used to come and watch them when I was younger and all my friends would come to the Minerdome to hang out,” she said.

“I did speak to someone the other day and they were like, ‘Wow you are playing for the Rush, remember when we used to go watch them?’”

Wynne has taken Ballarat’s basketball pathway since the very start when she joined under-10 competition.

In the decade since her first team, the Ballarat Celtic Tigers, Wynne has competed in nationals for Victoria Country on three occasions, been involved in many representative tournaments including the Albury Cup and was selected into the National Performance Program. 

The intensive high-level training program has helped the 19-year-old transition from Youth League to Ballarat’s elite Rush team.

Wynne made her SEABL debut in 2016, played her first full season in 2017 and is now starting to truly make her mark in season 2018.  

“I’ve always played at a higher level with the national stuff, but it is definitely more physical and fast-paced,” Wynne said of the league.

But the up-and-comer is familiar with the expectations of the team’s new coach, with Hayes having coached her when she played representative basketball. 

“I knew a bit of his coaching ways and how he likes the hard work, so it has been good to know what he likes but it is a little bit different at senior level,” Wynne said.

“We definitely have a higher intensity at training and a lot of it is the little things, doing the effort plays, we didn’t really have that last year. It is a much better environment.” 

Her goals for the season are to play well consistently and for the team to do well and make it to the finals.