Launceston is certainly a long way from Stanford.
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But for Tornadoes import Mikaela Ruef, she feels right at home back in Tasmania.
The 25-year-old returns rather chuffed about her second crack at the SEABL club.
“I really loved the team last year – I thought our team just had great success,” she says.
“I loved the fans, the whole community and everything connected to that.”
The 191cm American forward was keen to resist subtle overtures from her SEABL rivals. But it’s not just on court that matters to Ruef.
The engineering graduate now feels captivated in a different world from one of the world’s most prestigious universities in California.
“I really love Tasmania, I love the scenery,” she says, “It’s cold – that’s probably the only thing that I don’t like.”
Ruef has embarked on a 12-months-a-year full-time basketball odyssey that has also included WNBL winter stints at Sydney Uni Flames and Adelaide Lightning since arriving in Australia in 2014.
But from playing to packed stadiums of more than 10,000 that would be the envy of NBL clubs to fronting several hundred spectators inside the Elphin Sports Centre, she feels a sense of relief to have left the US College system.
“We would train every day for three hours and it’s taxing on your body,” she says. “So to come here and train twice a week, I may shoot in the mornings or lift weights, but it’s your own prerogative to.”