A young, powerhouse team from Wenty Leagues Netball Club will travel to New Zealand in September to compete at the Kurangaituku Netball Tournament.
The U14’s team were one of three international squads invited to play in the prestigious competition, which sees teams from all over New Zealand descend on Rotorua for the two-day contest.
Wenty Leagues were selected to travel after a dominant run in the Blacktown City Netball Association, which has saw them become undefeated premiers the last four years.
Their inclusion in the upcoming Kurangaituku Netball Tournament was a virtual no-brainer.
“Our former team manager Nancy put our name down a few years ago because she thought it would be a good opportunity for the girls to see what other countries are doing with their netball,” coach Ana Church told Parra News.
“We’ve been undefeated premiers the past four years and, after so much success, the organisers invited us to play and see what we are made of.”
Church, who coaches the successful team alongside her husband Mark, said their group of nine superstars are looking forward to competing against the best of the best.
“They are all ecstatic, they can’t wait,” she said.
“This is a yearly competition which sees clubs from all over New Zealand battle it out to see who is the best. They send out three international invites each year, and we were one of three teams that got invited.”
Any trip oversees is expensive these days, let alone sending a whole sporting team of teenagers over. In order to help fund the costly journey across the ditch, Wenty Leagues Netball Club have held numerous fundraising activities to assist in raising money for the girls to travel over.
“We did a 5km sponsorship run recently and we’ve got more Bunnings BBQs lined up,” Church said.
“We have a few more fundraisers in the works as well, so people can check out our Facebook page to see our upcoming events and how they can donate.”
While the group aren’t quite sure how they’ll go against teams from oversees, they are just proud to be among the select few chosen to compete.
Church believes the side has been successful over the years due to the love each player has for one another.
“They’re a wonderful bunch of girls,” she said.
“I find girls either get along or they don’t, and it’s amazed us that we’ve found a group of girls who love each other to bits. They are like family.”
Nathan Taylor is Parra News' sports journalist. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked in western Sydney media for more than a decade.