Last Practice Before State Titles

LAST night was the last practice before the Scone under 17’s and open representative netball teams compete at the New South Wales state championships this long weekend in Newcastle.

Gabby Jones passes the ball in the last practice run before the state championships.

The teams have been training since February with the support of coaches Derrian Rando, Natalie Walters and Robyn Adams.

In the under 17’s team all of the players have played at a state level, some as many as six times and are looking forward to this weekends competition.

“I really enjoy going away as a team and the bonding we have as team,” said Tegan Tickner.

“We are aiming for the top ten teams in the competition,” she said.

There are 21 games over the three day competition, with teams playing seven 26 minute games each day.

Kirsten Smith said they are keen to get to the competition and joked about competing against their closest rivals.

“We want to beat Muswellbrook, they are our first game; we have friends in the team, but we are also rivals so we’d like to win that one,” she laughed.

Zoe Watts added, “beating Singleton would be good too, the local towns we know.”

Coaches Derrian Rando and Robyn Adams said they are as ready as they’ll ever be.

“I think it is more stressful being on the sideline, on the side of the court you play every ball,” said Derrian Rando.

Robyn Adams agreed but added, “at this age they are more strategic and we have more of a mentoring role as coaches, which is different compared to coaching younger ones.”

The girls have fundraised to be able to go to the titles and would like to thank their generous sponsors and the people who have supported them.