Netballers gain valuable experience

The team left for Windsor, NSW, last Sunday, and will return to Tasmania when the championships end next Sunday.

It lost its first game to Queensland on Monday.

Director of coaching Jo Cubit said sending a team to the championships was a way of giving young netballers more experience at national level.

``It's a good way for us to develop a base of juniors who are then experienced for our under-17 team,'' Ms Cubit said.

Because all other states had sent teams to the 15-and- under championships, their teams were more experienced at 17-and- under level than Tasmanian teams.

The Tasmanian side includes three players from Hobart, three from the North-West, one from the North-East and five from the North.

The 12 players were selected from 83 hopefuls who took part in try-outs in May.

Most of the players selected have been drawn from the Young Lights programme, which Netball Tasmania operates in each region of the State in conjunction with colleges.

``We've selected a very tall, strong team, but because they haven't been to the championships before they will have less experience than some of the other states,'' Ms Cubit said.

``We want the championships to be a good learning experience.''

The team is co-coached by Belinda Headlam and Yvette Eastoe.

Headlam is the 17-and-under assistant coach this year, and coached the Northern Young Lights last year and this year.

She is also in her second year as coach of the Northern Saints 19-and-under team.

Eastoe is the Devonport Young Lights coach and the coach of Devon's 19-and- under team.

She was assistant coach at Devon last year.

Hobart's Katherine Olechowski is captain of the team, while Launceston's Sophie Laing is vice- captain.

Other team members are: Allison Brown, Melissa Burr, Danielle Carstens, Jenna Chiffey-Gray, Brooke Chugg, Courtney Foster, Danica Headlam, Lauren Schulze, Kate Walsh and Melissa White.