PREPARATIONS are underway for the Australian men's lacrosse team's first training camp in Dimboola.
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Dimboola Memorial Secondary College will host a camp on January 18 and 19 and another in April in the lead-up to the World Lacrosse Championship in Denver, Colorado in July.
Principal Rob Pyers said it was a coup for the region to have the reigning bronze medallists use the college's state-of-the art health and fitness centre.
The centre boasts the Wimmera's only synthetic hockey field.
Mr Pyers said the Dimboola community was looking forward to the Sharks' visit.
"The community groups involved with the health and fitness centre have had a meeting and are organising catering and preparations for the weekend," he said.
"We want to make sure they have a great stay in Dimboola.
"We're hoping to do something on a local level to promote the visit and get people to come down and have a look at lacrosse to have one of the best teams in the world training in Dimboola is pretty exciting."
Mr Pyers said Wimmera schools would have a strong lacrosse focus in the lead-up to the team's return visit in April.
"We're hopeful it's going to be a very positive time for sport in Dimboola," he said.
Sharks head coach Glenn Meredith said the players would be happy to run a clinic for school children.
He hopes the visit will encourage more people to take up the sport.
Meredith said about 35 people would attend this month's camp, including a videographer and a sports nutritionist.
"It's going to be hot in Denver so the nutritionist will be doing sweat tests to figure out how much hydration fluid the players need," he said.
"We've scheduled short games for Saturday and Sunday mornings.
"It depends on the temperature. If the conditions are reasonable then we can extend them."
Meredith said the players, who were primarily from Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, were excited to be training in the Wimmera.
"The players will get their equipment to be used in Denver from our major sponsor Maverik Lacrosse," he said.
"We're also going to go out for dinner in Horsham on the Saturday night and then do some team bonding activities.
"It should be a lot of fun."
The World Lacrosse Championship will be on between July 10 and 19.
Meredith said 42 countries would compete for the title and about 100,000 people were expected to attend.
He said the Sharks' final team would be picked in March following a tour to Japan.