Bathurst's Hope Coombes, Mia Baggett named in West Central West representative team

Coombes, 16, and Baggett, 17, are the two of the selections among a stack of Orange talent in the 12-strong WCW representative squad.

With the competition between the New South Wales regions featuring players aged 16 to 22 the Bathurst duo will be two of the younger players in the competition but are both excited for the challenge.

The pair earned their place in the side thanks to their strong performances for Bathurst in division one of the West Central West Regional League competition earlier this season.

They're no strangers to representative competition, and have each developed their skills greatly this year as part of the Western Region Academy of Sport netball program.

Mudgee native Baggett, who boards at Scots All Saints College, was just as excited to learn of her selection.

"It feels amazing. It's such a big achievement in my netball career," Baggett said.

"This year I've been working on my netball as hard as I can so this feels like a big part of he journey for me.

"When I was selected it didn't sink in for a while. I was excited to learn whether I'd made it or not, and it was a surprise because there's some amazing netball players out this way."

Coombes is keen to take on competitors with potentially up to six more years of experience compared to her.

"It feels so good to make this team, especially being the youngest one as well. It's a great opportunity to have" she said.

"I'm really grateful for the chance and I think it's going to be such a great experience to play against the older girls."

The remainder of the WCW squad includes Orange's Ally Kaufman, Aurella White, Brooke Burcher, Caitie Harvey, Ellie Mooney, Emily Williams, Madison Cole, Olivia Dolbel, Rihannon Dennis as well as Dubbo's Isabella Attwater.

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Coombes and Baggett have had the chance to play alongside some of the squad members in the past and are looking forward to the learning opportunity.

"I'm part of the WRAS team. I've only been in that team for a year and there's a couple of girls in there who are also in this regional team. It will be nice to see some familiar faces," Baggett said.

"I really enjoyed playing Regional League against them. When you look at how dominant Orange have been in that competition, for Hope and I to be selected among that group is amazing."

Coombes is hopeful the team can make an impact against the other regions.

"I know most of the other girls in the team. I really enjoyed playing Regional League division one, which Mia and I haven't been in before," she said.

"Playing against Orange was great for us because their level of netball is so good.

"We'll have a couple of training sessions beforehand just to get used to playing with one another before we go away. I'm sure it will be a hard competition down there but I think that we'll go pretty well."

The competition will take place at Netball Central in Sydney Olympic Park over October 2 and 3.

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