A strong contingent of talented age-group netballers will represent Northland at the under-17 North Harbour tournament which gets under way today at Auckland's North Shore Events Centre. The girls are part of the Whangarei High Performance Centre which takes the region's best players and develops them further. They are evidence ofthe quality players coming through the ranks and flourishing in Northland. Whangarei Girls' High School's Amelia Smith and Luana Beazley-Tango will line up for Netball North along with Maungakaramea Area School's Sheeryn Schragg, while WGHS's Alana Vincent, Liana Bennett and Jade Telfer will also contest the tournament with the invitation Mid North Performance Centre side, as well as Kelsey Power from Bream Bay College, Kamo High's Alexis Chapman and Helen Davidson of Okaihau College. Smith, Beazley-Tango and Schragg will back in action for Netball North at the under-17 national tournament in Wellington from July 13-17. Age-group netball is in full swing this month and also tipping off today are the under-19 nationals at Trusts Stadium, where Tara Wells and Kimberley Hita will represent Northland with Netball North. Seventeen under-19 regional teams will be vying for national honours at the event. Sian Telfer, from WGHS, is playing at the same venue with Netball North under-21s against seven other regional sides for the New Zealand under-21 title. There is a new twist to the under-19 and under-21 national age-group championships this year. Previously played outdoors, the games have moved indoors which will enable players of this age and calibre to gain a feel for elite and competitive netball. To cap off a busy month for netball, Jess McClintock-Maihi and Catherine Allington of Tauraroa Area School, and Cherith Schraag from Maungakaramea Area School, are hitting the courts for the Southern Zone Area Schools tournament at Kerikeri next week.
