Top young players on track for higher levels

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Wanganui High School netballers Sammy Murphy and Ruhia Tamati will be "on the pathway" to developing their game to the next level in 2014 with their inclusion in the Central Zone NZ Talent Development Programme.

Wanganui junior umpire Renee Harrison has been chosen for the umpiring development programme.

Fifty players from the Horizons, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Wellington regions will get specialist sessions on all facets of high performance netball.

"You're on the pathway, they'll have three camps they have to go through, throughout the first few months of the year," said Murphy's mother Lisa Murphy, Netball Wanganui technical development officer.

Netball NZ emerging talent selectors will watch them during these zone sessions as well as at their regular representative tournaments, with the best from each zone being chosen for the National Development Camp next December.

For the 187.5cm (6ft 2in) tall Sammy Murphy, the year-long development programme will be old hat as she has been through it this season and this weekend is away attending the 2013 edition of the national camp in Auckland.

However for 15-year-old Tamati it will be her first year receiving this level of attention, which is designed to give players an inkling of the commitment and skills required to become an elite player.

Harrison is one of nine umpires chosen for the officials' programme and Lisa Murphy said it was wonderful to have a Wanganui umpire included, as Harrison had completed her regional theory assessment this year as well.

Both Murphy and Tamati were part of the successful Phillips Electrical Wanganui High School A1 team which swept both the secondary school and Premier 1 championships this season, and represented Wanganui at Under 17 and Under 15 level respectively.