MURTOA College volleyball siblings Cleo and Lloyd Baker have been invited to a national identification training camp, putting them in line for potential national selection.
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Lloyd, 14, and Cleo, 15, competed in the Australian Junior Volleyball Championships last month in Queensland. Cleo said she had been working hard on improving her game for a number of years now.
“I never thought I would be invited,” she said.
“The purpose of the training camp is to continue skills, development and understanding of the game. It’s to further develop the systems for national teams.
“We will show the coaches what we can do and by the end of this, if they like what they see, we could go onto play nationally for Australia.”
Lloyd took up the sport at the end of primary school and said he was excited by the selection.
“I was very excited and just thrilled to get the news,” he said. “It was a big surprise for this amazing opportunity that we now have. I want to try and get the best as I can.”
The siblings play volleyball at Murtoa College and with Volleyball Horsham and praised the efforts of their coaches.
Cleo has played state volleyball for three years and was recently named the Wimmera Regional Sports Assembly’s Sports Star of the Year nomination for October.
Lloyd has played domestically for a few years and has recently tested himself at the higher level. He said Murtoa College teacher Shaun Bray and Volleyball Horsham president David Berry had been great helps.
“Shaun Bray has been our biggest help as a teacher at school and also thanks to David Berry for helping with everything and the opportunities we get at Volleyball Horsham,” he said.
The siblings' mother Jo Baker said a great volleyball culture was forming at Murtoa College.
“Shaun Bray and David Berry have really pushed the kids onto that next level and given them opportunities they wouldn’t have had,” she said.
“That’s how we have been able to create a bit of a volleyball culture at Murtoa College.”
The camps will run from December 14-20, with the girl’s camp in Churchill and the boy’s one in Bendigo.
Cleo said there “wasn’t really a rivalry” between her and her brother, but that the duo always pushes each other to do better.
