New 0800 Easy LPG Hawks player, Callum Baynes, puts his success in basketball down to being in the right place at the right time. But his coaches and team mates know there's more to it than that. He's fresh, driven and motivated to win.
The 23-year-old power forward moved to Hawke's Bay just three weeks ago after finishing an Australian NBL season with the Brisbane Bullets. Now he's focussed on going one better with the Hawks and bringing home the championship they so rightly deserve.
"Losing the championship last year was pretty tough on everyone," Callum says. "But everyone's worked even harder since then so it will be good to see the changes that have been made and how they've improved."
Towering at 6ft 8, Callum, who was born in New Zealand and moved across the Tasman when he was seven years old, was a somewhat late starter in the sport. It wasn't until he was a 19-year-old university student in Brisbane that he had his first game.
"I'm doing a teaching degree and while I was on location once a teacher asked if I played basketball. I said no and he said 'Well you do now because we need a tall player in our team.' And it all started from there.
"I'd never really played before because at my school you either played rugby league or soccer. I did a lot of athletics though."
However, being reasonably new to the sport has had its advantages for Callum. Many of his coaches say it's easier to teach him because he hasn't picked up bad habits, as many players do when they start young. He has also been lucky enough to have been coached by some of the best coaches Australia and New Zealand have to offer right from the beginning.
"I'm really looking forward to working with Shawn (Dennis). It's great because he's a full-time coach and that's good for a young player like me because I can do extra work with him."
And while there's work to be done, goals to achieve and skills to learn, Callum says he'll always love basketball and admits he'd ultimately like to play the game for a living.
"Representing New Zealand in basketball would be the ultimate. Winning the championship would be up there too. You work all year towards it with a core group of guys and winning a championship is the epitome.
"The levels of competition and professionalism are a lot higher over here so I believe you can develop a lot more quickly. I'm using my time here as a stepping stone to develop," Callum says.

Monique Hewitt, Mail Newspapers (HB)