FOUR Wimmera players will take to Canberra's volleyball courts this week for the Australian Junior Volleyball Championships.
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Horsham's Kaylee Schmidt and Murtoa trio Aaron Evans, Fergus Schier and Tom Petering have all been selected in Victorian representative teams for the championships, which start today.
Schier will make his debut for the boys under-17 Victoria Blue squad.
Victoria Blue teams are the top squads of junior players in each age group and are limited to the best 10 players in the state.
Schier will become only the third Volleyball Horsham player in the past decade and sixth overall to play in a Victoria Blue team.
Lachie Robinson qualified for the under-16 boys blue team in 2006 and Jess Radford was in the girls under-19 blue squad last year.
They were the first Wimmera players to qualify since David Abud, Darren Franks and Michael Brack in the 1980s.
Evans and Petering are in the under-17 Victoria West squad, while Schmidt is in the girls under-17 Victoria West squad.
Victoria sends West and East development teams to the championships each year, in addition to the blue squad.
Volleyball Horsham president David Berry said having four state representatives was a sign of the association's strength.
"That's 12 years in a row now that we've had members going away to further their volleyball careers in one of the state teams," he said.
Berry said all four would gain invaluable experience at the top level.
"With Ferg in the blue team, when he comes back he's going to be so much better for the experience ," he said.
"It's the same with the other three they'll learn heaps from it and bring it back to the Murtoa program and the domestic competition."
Berry said his advice for the four players was to have fun and enjoy themselves while at the championships, which finish on Friday.