She is almost embarrassed and shies away from the attention that comes her way.
It has made for a slightly uncomfortable week for the Southern Steel captain, who brings up her 200th national netball league game against the Pulse tomorrow night. She becomes the fifth most-capped domestic player and the only active player among the top 10.
It is an outstanding achievement for a defender who has given tirelessly to the game in the past 19 years, but one Selby-Rickit (33) is happy to let pass her by.
"When you think about it, in my life I’ve played thousands, and thousands, and thousands, of games of netball, and never actually thought about 199 and I probably won’t even think twice about 201.
"I know I’m very lucky to get to 200. I’ve been very lucky to have the players that I’ve played with, and the coaches that I had, and management ... and I’m very thankful for that.
"I’m really excited, but very excited mostly to probably have it over and done with."
In her early days, Selby-Rickit was naturally tall, now standing at 1.84m, and due to her height, she often swapped between shooting and defending for her club team, aged 11.
She was picked for the Western Flyers at 15, in the former National Bank Cup, becoming one of the youngest players to be selected for a domestic league.
After spending a season with the Flyers, it was an outing at the national provincial championships at the end of 2005 that changed everything.
Selby-Rickit came off the court and found her mother, Mereana, talking to Southern Sting coach Robyn Broughton.
Initially embarrassed her mother was "chewing [Broughton’s] ear off", she soon realised Broughton was asking Selby-Rickit to join the Sting.
Shocked, her mother allowed her to go play for the team she always loved. Selby-Rickit moved to Invercargill in 2006, started at Verdon College — where Broughton taught — giving her her first taste of top-level secondary school netball and signing with the Sting, originally as a shooter.
Joining a Sting team packed with big names such as Lesley Rumball, Donna Wilkins and Adine Wilson could have been daunting, but she was used to being the youngest in every team.
"I was always playing with older people. It was never different or funny to me.
"I loved learning from those older players and just soaking in whatever they did and I ... probably [watched] them like an idiot sometimes," she laughed.
For New Zealand under-21, she often chopped and changed between shooting and defence, until she asked to be given a shot at full-time defence.
"I was a shooter all through secondary school ... but as soon as I got that chance to get out of it, I got out of it very quickly."
She spoke to Broughton about transitioning to defence domestically, and as the Sting morphed into the Southern Steel for the ANZ Championship, Selby-Rickit stamped her mark as one of the league’s best defenders.
The Steel opened new doors for Selby-Rickit, as she challenged herself against Australian and New Zealand netball styles, knowing it would be an "absolute slog" against the Australians.
She recalled a game against the New South Wales Swifts as one of the hardest of her career — but it kept her on her toes.
"Every time you were playing Australian teams, I just knew I was going to be absolutely exhausted by the end of it.
"But that was fun as well and a really good challenge.
"I was gutted when it changed, but hopefully in the future they find a way to change it back so everyone else can get a chance to play the Australians week-in, week-out."
In 2012, Broughton took over as head coach of the Central Pulse, and recognising the opportunity to be closer to her family in Otaki, Selby-Rickit joined the Pulse too.
Broughton had a huge influence on Selby-Rickit, and her nurturing ways off the court helped shape her.
"It’s a word in Maori — it’s called manaakitanga.
"She just looks after people so well, and our styles, and ideas, of netball were very similar.
"She’s very particular about the basics and I don’t think basics are looked at enough these days. Everyone wants to do really flash things but doesn’t really focus on basics.
"I just loved that about her and loved playing for her in that way."
But by 2015,with Broughton stepping down from the Pulse, and the Steel asking her to return, Selby-Rickit was lured back to the South for good.
"I missed Southland, as well, so I came back and haven’t really left since."
Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua was at the helm of the Steel then, and it posed a refreshing opportunity for Selby-Rickit to have a new domestic coach for the first time.
She recalled almost dreading Taurua’s tough trainings, where she got "trashed" physically and mentally, but it made the games so much easier.
"Curly’s [Reinga Bloxham] just kind of taken it from there and pushed on that kind of thing.
"I’ve just really loved the different coaching and different styles of coaching throughout the years."
Returning to the Steel had been exciting. She helped the team win consecutive titles in 2017 and 2018, grew as a leader — something that has taken some getting used too — and learnt to work with a new defender nearly every year.
"It’s been quite tough for me because I love listening to other people and seeing what they do, and feeding off other experience, but I’ve almost had to become more of a leader in that way.
"Taking on a leader role which hasn’t really been natural for me, and I don’t really love it, but it’s been really fun, getting to know all these younger players.
"I had the best people to follow and lead from and try and become somewhat as good as they were for our younger ones."
But it was followed by one of her favourite seasons in 2018.
"We weren’t expected to win at all because we’d obviously lost two very key players in our team.
"Year before, we’d won by quite a lot and then that year we were just winning by one or two, just getting over the line and I think that’s why we won because we learnt how to kind of slog it and get our noses in front just at the end.
"That was a super fun year."
She was proud of the younger Steel sides in recent years, proving people wrong when her team was tipped to finish bottom of the table, and the growth of the players.
It had not come without tough times, including Stadium Southland’s roof collapsing in 2010, Covid-19 disrupted seasons taking a toll, and a van crash in Christchurch in 2017 that left players injured.
"I can’t say that was a highlight.
"I was really happy how the girls and the Beko girls that jumped up really stepped up for us and we ended up winning that."
There had been other struggles, but she always refers to them as team struggles, instead of her own.
"I always talk about us because personally I’ve been very lucky and I know that playing netball is like having a hobby.
"So when I speak about tough times, and other people going through tough times, I don’t see myself going through tough times."
Looking back over her career, though, the good times far outweighed any of the bad.
"It’s been a really, really fun experience, obviously — if it hadn’t I wouldn’t have stayed around as long, and I just know how lucky I am to be able to do this for as long as I have."
So just how long will Selby-Rickit keep playing?
The self-confessed preseason hater questions her decision at the start of every season, but once she gets to travel with her team-mates and steps on the court, she falls in love again.
She called it a "miracle" to play as long as she had, and counted herself lucky to have never had a major injury.
"I don’t know when there will be a time.
"I don’t know if there will be a time I completely go away from it, because I do love being involved, I do love coaching and all that kind of stuff.
"Surely I’ll still be involved in some way, even if I’m not playing."
While she might be glad to have this weekend’s milestone match out of the way, netball in New Zealand is all the richer for the impact she has had on the game.
National league
Most games
229 Leana de Bruin
226 Laura Langman
210 Liana Leota
203 Katrina Rore
199 Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit
187 Casey Kopua 187
185 Maria Folau
184 Irene van Dyk
177 Temepara Bailey
176 Joline Henry
176 Wendy Frew
Note: Includes National Bank Cup, ANZ Championship and Premiership, Vitality Super League (England) and Suncorp Super Netball (Australia).
They said it
Tributes to "Hu"
"Not much fazes her and she rarely is stressed. When games are tight and down to the wire, she strives on those pressure moments. Her netball smarts are also a thing she is well known for. She can read the game and is always generous with her ability to share her knowledge. The most stress I’ve seen her under has been in the last week, worrying about her injury and playing this 200th game, or should I say the spotlight being on her for her 200th game. She isn’t someone to blow her own trumpet but prefers to just get on with it."— Southern Steel coach, Reinga Bloxham
"Hu’s not the tallest or the fastest out on court but she understands the game better than anyone I know. Hu’s always been a bit of a player-coach on court because she just understands the game and she’s such a great communicator. She’s a bit of a netball geek, actually. I’m three years younger than her — I always followed her around and wanted to do what she did. When we went down to the netball courts and I’d watch her play, at the breaks I’d always run out on court and try and do what she’d been doing, putting up shots or whatever.— Tactix player and sister Te Paea Selby-Rickit
"Hoochie is such a legend. She is going to hate all the attention and recognition that she is going to receive but, boy, does she deserve it. She has one of the most brilliant netball brains that I have ever encountered. She is such a calming influence on the court and knows how to have a good time off the court."— Former Silver Fern Shannon Saunders
