Emma Rumbel  was a member of Kurri Kurri Netball Association 17s years representative team who attended the Netball NSW State Championships on the  June long weekend hosted by Irrawarra District Netball Association at Wollongong.

The championships are a three-day event where associations from all over NSW travel to attend and participate in the event.

Emma’s team played 22 games of netball during this period.

With a squad of 10 players, Emma’s team played in a mixture of warm days and intense winds, with a number of injuries running throughout the team with only seven players left to compete on final day.

The team, who competed in division three, finished 17th overall out of 23 teams.

They fought hard in every game sometimes only losing by one or two goals.

The improvement shown game to game by this team was impressive and each player should be extremely proud of themselves and each other.

This is Emma’s seventh year as a representative player.

For the past six years Emma has represented Port Stephens Netball association  but this year the association was unsuccessful in forming a team.

Emma was fortunate to be selected as a member of the Kurri team. Emma attended weekly training sessions at Kurri along with state league competition and carnivals on Sunday as part of their training to the lead up to the championships.

Emma is very passionate about this sport as a player, umpire and coach.

She is also attending the State Age championship this coming weekend as an umpire.

Emma holds a National B Badge in her umpiring level and will be attending the championship representing Port Stephens Netball Association where she will umpiring several games each day over the three-day event.

Joining Emma will be six fellow club members who are competing in teams representing Port Stephens Netball Association participating in the 2015 Netball NSW State Age Championships.

Lily Turner, Grace Miller and Jemma Walters will play in the 12-years team, Jenna Muddle in the 13s, Hayley Forbes 14s and Eliza Gallagher in the 15 years.

Jessica Rumbel was a member of the 11-years development squad for Port Stephens Netball Association but this squad does not compete at the championship.

The aim of development squad is to give players an inside look at representative netball which is the next level of netball from Saturday competition.

All representative players have to commit to a level of training and fitness that will enable them to

compete during the representative season.

All players commenced training early February where they have attended a weekly training and fitness session along with competing in several Sunday carnivals.

This year the state age championships will be hosted by four separate associations.

 Port Stephens Netball Associations has two teams, 12s and 13s, in division four and two teams (14 and 15) in division three.

Division three will be hosted by Penrith Netball Association and division four will be hosted by Hawkesbury Netball Association.

Unfortunately Jenna Muddle will not be able to participate in championship this coming weekend. While Jenna was participating in their last carnival two weekends ago, she fell during her game which has resulted in a fractured arm.

Unable to play netball for at least five weeks, Jenna was devastated by this news but as she was voted by her fellow team members as captain of the team, Jenna will still attend championships with her team to provide support and cheering from sideline.

This is a great display of sportsmanship from Jenna.

Also as late as Saturday, the Port Stephens 12 years rep team required another player due to unforseen circumstance.

Selectors watched several players in their game on Saturday  and congratulations to Jemma Walters who was selected to fill this position.

Jemma will join Lily and Grace in the 12 years team as they attend their first state championships. Dungog club president Sam Rumbel is also attending the championships as the manager of 12 years team for Port Stephens.