Sport

25 May, 2023

Netballer wins coach’s award at state titles

Morayfield State High School student Lee Young played in the Sunshine Coast 13-15 regional school team which placed second in the recent Queensland School Sport Netball Championships at the Brisbane-based Nissan Arena. The year 9 scholar, who usually plays at goal defence (GD) or goalkeeper (GK), lined up at GD and wing defence (WD) as she was considered not tall enough for the GK role. Although she had rarely played WD before, the adjustment did not hinder Lee’s game as she earned the coach’s award for the Sunshine Coast 13-15 team. Lee said she was happy with how she played, and also felt proud to receive the coach’s award. “When I was awarded the medal, my coach said it was for how I improved every game,” Lee said. The team featuring Lee consisted of 10 players from schools in the area from Redcliffe to Noosa and west to Kilcoy. Having started her netball career with the Caboolture-based Bluejays club in 2014, Lee switched to the Burpengary Jets in 2019 and has remained there ever since. Lee progressed to the Jets Div 1 team this year, which has also been her first year in a Greater Brisbane Netball League (GBNL) Caboolture team. This year has also been the third in which Lee has made a Caboolture netball representative team, and she has also made the school districts netball team three times. This year nonetheless was the first time Lee made it through to the regional school netball team, and she said it was the highest level of sport she had played. “I had previously played with two of the girls in my Caboolture representative and GBNL teams,” she said. “They come from schools in Redcliffe. “These two girls were also in my district team. “Seven other girls (who) I had never played with before came from schools in the Sunshine Coast.” Lee and her teammates won 10 of their 11 games on the first three days as they opposed Metro North, Metro East, Metro West, North West, South West, South Coast, Darling Downs, Capricornia, Peninsula, Wide Bay and Northern. As it transpired, South Coast was the lone team which Sunshine Coast could not overcome. Having won the round-robin encounter in the first three days, South Coast went on to beat Sunshine Coast in the decider as the top-two teams faced off on day four. Lee nevertheless said it was very exciting to finish as high as second place. “I feel like it’s a huge achievement to be second at this level of netball,” she said. “I found this competition a lot of fun and very exciting. “I was a little bit nervous because it was a higher standard than what I’ve played before, but I always step up to the level I’m playing. “It was definitely the fastest netball I’ve ever played, and some games were very physical.” Lee went on to play in a Possibles versus Probables trial match for state selection but, unfortunately for the Morayfield scholar, her name was not included when the Queensland team was announced. Lee said she naturally was disappointed to miss out on the Queensland team, but she realised being in contention was still an achievement. “I was still very proud of being considered in Possibles and Probables (P and P’s), and was happy for my teammates and friends who did make it,” she said. “After making the P and P’s, I will keep trying for a spot on the Queensland team in future years.” The ambitious teen said she had many future goals in her chosen sport as she would like to play for Queensland, make a Hart series team, and hopefully make a Suncorp Super Netball team.

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