Several talented young netballers from the Wimmera have been named in Netball Victoria’s 19-and-under Regional Talent Academy for 2019.
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Ella Rees, Emma Buwalda, Georgie Carberry and Claudia Lee have been named in the academy for its inaugural year.
The 19-and-under regional academy has been created to help provide high-quality coaching and offer more pathways for country netballers. The previous zone academy was available only to players 16-and-under.
Ella Rees was in the academy last year along with Georgie Carberry, and said she was pleased the opportunity to keep developing at a high level had been extended.
“It’s really exciting to get the opportunity,” Rees said.
“I aged out of the academy this year but Netball Victoria wanted to give county girls a new pathway so it’s definitely exciting.
“It’s a good opportunity for some young country players to get the coaching and high performance training.”
Rees said she was excited to be joined by Carberry, Buwalda and Lee in the academy.
“I played some of them at state titles and academy last year but it’s going to be exciting to play on the same team as them this time,” Rees said.
“It will be good to play with some country girls that I know and some new ones that I don’t.”
As part of the new program, the Regional Academy girls will play several practice matches against the Victorian state team and other academies in the country.
Rees said those matches would provide a great opportunity to see where they need to improve against the best young players.
“It will be really good to play against them and see what level we need to be at,” she said.
“It’s a good chance to get some more training in with the best coaches and playing against those state players.”
The program also has two high performance camps in Melbourne later in the year that will focus on the players well-being as well as developing their netball.