The Bay of Plenty women's sevens team meets this weekend in Tauranga to look ahead to next year's national competition.
Tomorrow last year's women's squad, 20 invited schoolgirls, plus the manager, coaches, trainers and physio will get together for the women's sevens physical screening day at Baypark. The purpose ofthe day is not only to kick-start their nationals campaign and let people know about the growth of the game, but also to assess the sevens athletes' fitness levels.
It will also provide knowledge on fitness programmes.
Bay of Plenty women's sevens coach David Mays said they wanted to build the women's game in the Bay.
"We are a new sevens programme, entering our third year of qualifications for nationals. Our player base has grown from 11 to 34 in two years. Our aim is to raise our performance standards by creating a performance and accountable culture.
"We're ranked seventh out of 16 teams in New Zealand and feel we could achieve a top-four ranking in the future by creating more depth, competition for places and an earlier talent identification process to target younger athletes and expose them to the sevens variant of the game."
Tomorrow will also see the introduction of new students who have been identified through high school programmes as suitable for getting involved with the sevens development programme.
