Bathurst juniors will be representing the Western Region Academy of Sport when the line up AFL, basketball, hockey, netball and tennis teams.

There will be 11 Regional Academies of Sport (RAS) from across New South Wales taking part at the games and over 1,300 athletes vying for gold over eight sports.

Bathurst's biggest share of representation comes in netball through Lara Abbott, Clancy Best, Hope Coombes, Kate Fallon, Georgie Geyer, Lilli Mooney and Ella Muller.

The city's juniors feature prominently in Basketball (Chloe Boardman, Lewellyn Kingham, Jonathan Limbrick, Kendra O'Keeffe and Jackson Tapu) and Hockey (Bridget Ellis, Kirsten Fitzpatrick, Isobel Fitzpatrick, Shona Jarvis, Belinda Kidd and Matilda McDonald).

Amelia Chapman, Molly Mann, Dakota Nugent and Tara Trindall will be in the AFL squad and Tayla Brasier flies the flag in tennis.

Bathurst will also be strongly represented in the staffing ranks through Steve Mann (AFL), Tirah Jarvis, Lachlan Martin (hockey) and Melissa Noonan (netball).

Noonan said it's been a great build up to the games for the netball squad.

"We've got a new squad with only six returning athletes in total and two of those from Bathurst - Clancy and Ella," she said.

"They got a taste of what it will be like when we play the other academies during a high performance session, because you can sometimes be a bit shell-shocked by the level of netball.

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"It does take a little while to settle in but, with that said, the girls have been quick to find their feet and played some nice netball at high performance.

"The expectation at Maitland is that we can build on that and they can develop their netball."

Noonan said WRAS aren't the only ones who will be going through player turnover, which should make for an interesting competition this weekend.

"I have heard from Mardi Aplin, being the Netball NSW representative in the region here, that a lot of academies are in the same boat with turnover," she said.

"Everyone has that rotation at some stage with the three-year age limits that are put on the squad. A lot of newbies will be there competing and looking to perform.

The Academy Games officially begin with Friday evening's opening ceremony at the Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium.

Netball gets underway at the Maitland Basketball Centre on Saturday.

This year's games feature the introduction of triathlon and an exhibition wheelchair basketball and para-futsal matches.

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