BALLARAT Clarendon College year 12 student, Poppy Douglass has been selected for the Netball Victoria Elite Development Squad.<\/p>\n
The program launched this year to continue offering opportunities to high level young athletes while they couldn\u2019t compete on behalf of the state at a national level due to COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I found out about it, I wanted to get in to maintain skills. There\u2019s some great coaches down in Melbourne available to us to learn new skills, and most of the girls are from the metro area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far we\u2019ve covered basic skills. It\u2019s higher intensity and very exhausting, but we\u2019ll progress fitness-wise and skills-wise so everyone there can reach their full potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoy seeing people that aren\u2019t from Ballarat, making new connections, learning new things as a person and player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Douglass has never experienced so much netball down-time as she has in recent months since she began playing the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been very different. My first session back was last week and it\u2019s been the longest I\u2019ve been without netball in my whole life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing Zoom sessions at home, but I was getting pretty bored and restless not being able to get out and play with friends and do on-court scenarios.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many amazing people that help me out and have got me through the weird time, but I\u2019ve missed the social and community aspect of it, and the ability to go down to escape on the court and keep active.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holding a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship, and a place in the VNL\u2019s Geelong Cougars, Douglass\u2019 local home is North Ballarat Netball Club.<\/p>\n
Coach, Annie McCartin said she could tell Douglass had \u201csomething special\u201d as soon as she became a part of North\u2019s senior team.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the 17 and unders, the natural, first progression is to come into the 19 and unders, and I could see we needed someone else in our A grade team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see Poppy had a lot of offer, we wanted to develop her and give her the best opportunities that help her in all the different things she\u2019s been selected for. With all her training, she\u2019s gone up and up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t matter if Poppy was picked to play for Australia, she\u2019d never change. She\u2019s a level-headed girl, takes everything in her stride, we all love her and we\u2019re excited about her future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BALLARAT Clarendon College year 12 student, Poppy Douglass has been selected for the Netball Victoria Elite Development Squad. The program launched this year to continue offering opportunities to high level young athletes while they couldn\u2019t compete on behalf of the state at a national level due to COVID-19 restrictions. \u201cAs soon as I found out […]<\/p>\n