WA Netballers Selected in National 20/U Squad

Published On: 26 May 2016

Four WAIS netball scholarship athletes have been named in the National 20/U squad for an international series in Canberra which will pit the Australians against teams from New Zealand and England.

Scholarship holders; Jess Antiss, Natalie Bright, Sophie Garbin and Annika Lee-Jones were selected in the 24-strong squad and will represent the National 20/U team against development squads from New Zealand and England at the Centre of Excellence next August.

With the Netball World Youth Cup set to be held in Botswana in 2017, the selected WA girls will have an opportunity to impress National 21/U coach Tania Obst in a bid to etch their names into the coach’s thoughts ahead of next year’s Championships.

“I’ve been watching this group of athletes closely for three years now through our 17/U and 19/U National Championships and now am really keen to see what they can do in that competition environment,” Obst said.

The representative squad will gather at Netball Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Canberra between August 8-14 for a training camp followed by an international tournament – which will feature the Netball NZ 20/U team, Netball England’s 20/U team, Aotearora Maori team from New Zealand and a combined Australian state institute and academies team.

Obst said the camp would provide an excellent opportunity to develop the group collectively and scout potential opponents ahead of next year’s show piece in Africa.

“I’m very much looking forward to, first of all getting this squad on the court in some specialist coaching for the first two days of our camp, and then putting them on the court against athletes who could potentially be some of our international opponents in July next year.

In a further boost to the WAIS Netball Program led by coach Michelle Wilkins, three scholarship holders also earned invitation for the 19/U squad, with Phoebe Wilcox, Helen Taylor and Olivia Lewis all listed for the four day camp which will be held at Netball Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Canberra.