Against some of the state’s elite sporting high schools and much bigger townships, Glen Innes High School held their own in the open netball state playoffs.
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Glen Innes took on the rest of the state after beating Tamworth High School in the North West final.
They made the trip to Wollongong to play 15 other teams to earn their state ranking.
From seven games on the opening day, Glen Innes only triumphed in two.
The second day’s play saw the side pooled in with the bottom eight teams to play for their placings.
With a ninth, 10th or 11th position to aim for, the Glen Innes girls started the day on fire, trouncing Leeton in the opening game.
“We went into our first game against Leeton and it was nice to be up against them because we are similar size,” co-coach Katie Rossington said.
“We had a really significant win against them so that was great.
“We left them feeling a bit heartbroken because they probably looked at it and saw it as maybe being their win.”
At the end of the final day, Glen Innes had added to their winning figures and their victories earned them 11th place in front of Newcastle’s Callaghan College, Winmalee, Leeton, Nowra and Deniliquin High Schools.
Rossington said it was an eye opener for the young squad.
“You're up against sports high schools where kids are on scholarships for that sport,” she said.
“They have netball in their curriculum so they have periods where they go off to netball where other people go to maths.
“They have compulsory gym visits and Endeavour Sports High has the NSW coach as their coach.
“When we rack up our players, we actually had two girls pull and then we were asking who would like to come.
“It is such good exposure and experience for these girls to go down and taste what it is to play elite teams and see how elite teams prepare and see what the score difference is as well.”
Rossington was joined by Julie and Kirstie Fuller to mentor the side.
Julie Fuller signs are promising for future competitions with most team members in year 10.
“We didn't get a major flogging, some of them were really close games,” she said.
“The only girl who was top age was one of our shooters the rest are all year 10s and one year 11.”
The next tournament for the school’s netball team is the year nine and 10 Netball NSW School’s Cup in two weeks.
Glen Innes will again be one of the smallest schools entered with Griffith’s Wade High School, Westfield Sports High and Port Macquarie’s MacKillop College in the event.