SEASON 2018 can already be rated as a success for the Bathurst Netball Association’s junior representative teams, yet this weekend they have a chance to impress even more.
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Bathurst’s leading juniors are headed to Camden for the Netball NSW State Age Championships – a tournament they have been building towards for months.
Bathurst will be represented across each of the four age groups – under 12s, under 13s, under 14s and under 15s – and each of those outfits will contest their respective division two title.
“It is going to be a huge weekend and I think all the girls are going to be pretty pumped,” Bathurst Netball Association publicity officer Emilie Miller said.
“We’re stoked the girls are in div two for their respective age groups. A couple of years ago for Bathurst, all our teams were in division three, so it just shows the progress all the girls have made over the last couple of years and the netball association as a whole.
“The whole front of all the coaches and managers and players have all worked really hard to get those teams up into div two. We are really excited as we are expecting them all to finish quite well in their respective divisions this weekend.”
There are at least 18 teams from across NSW in each of the competitions Bathurst will contest, while the 15’s division also includes an invitational side from Fiji.
Teams will take on each other in a round-robin format, with the victor being the best performed outfit across those games.
Bathurst has not won a State Age crown side the under 13s took out division three in 2014 and while Miller is not sure if the wait will end this weekend, she knows the teams in blue and yellow will be competitive.
“The girls have done a lot of carnivals this year … we can’t single a team out for special mention as all four of those teams have worked really hard and played really well at all the carnivals in the lead up to state age,” she said.
“For us, that’s really promising, it’s exciting to be able to think all the girls have been winning consistently at their carnivals. For example, the 14s have won their age division in all but two carnivals and one of those was a div one carnival.
“Throughout the year a lot of our teams have had match-ups against teams expected to be near the top of the table at State Age and we’ve done really well. We’ve either won those games or have had really close games.
“We don’t want to name a number, but if we’re at the top end of those tables, we’d be really happy.”
