We recently caught up with Norwich High Year 11 student Eva, who will be heading to the European Championships at the end of February to represent Ireland in Netball:
“I have been playing netball for six years now. I play for my club team, Thoroughbreds, who play in East Region Division 2. I am also part of the U17 Saracens Mavericks Player Development Programme, which is a performance programme for the East based in St Albans. This is on top of playing in the first team in school and Ireland now!
A few girls who are in my performance pathway represented Ireland last year and as my dad is Irish, I thought I would go for it too. I had to do three rounds of trials all in Dublin each four hours long. The first was an open trial with nearly 100 girls there. They then cut down the squad to around 30 so it was an achievement to have even made it through the first cut! The second trial was more like a training session than a trial where we met our new coach and got to know each other a bit more however there were still cuts after. At the final trial there was 16 players left with only 12 spaces on the team. After a session of hard fitness testing and matches against the U19 and U21 team they had selected the final 12.”