Not one, not two, but three Busselton teenagers will represent WA at the upcoming Australian Junior Championships for basketball.
Josh Sutherland, Mia Anderson and Lucas Kemp will be travelling to Victoria on Friday for a week long competition against other states.
Sutherland is the only one to have played for WA before after being selected in the squad in 2021 and going to Darwin.
He said WA finished second last in Darwin and was hopeful they would do a lot better in 2022.
"There is only me and two other guys from last year's team so I think we have better side," Sutherland said.
Anderson said she was confident her team would be "competitive".
"Our goal is to win two pool games to reach the classification stage," she said.
The trio live and breath basketball with all playing locally over the summer and for junior Slammers in the winter as well as trying out for the state team.
Anderson played for Dunsborough in the summer competition and said the local competition was a lot of fun.
While Kemp and Sutherland are good friends, they played off against each other in the under 18s grand final, where Kemp played for Colts and Sutherland played for Saints.
The trio have been traveling to Perth every weekend for six weeks and then every second weekend in the lead up to the competition.
They all agreed their games became more strategic when playing in the state teams.
"It's good knowing what's going to happen and the options that can be created," Anderson said.
Anderson loves being the centre-forward or as she said "the big man on the court".
"You get to create more in my position and I get a lot of the rebounds - like that part of the game," she said.
Kemp's height and athleticism is being used to its fullest in a defensive role on the court.
"They [coaches] want me right up on defence and in other players' grill and attacking the hoop, grabbing rebounds - running the floor is always good fun," he said.
Sutherland enjoys being the smallest guy on the court and taking a leadership role.
"My strength is my quickness," he said.
The first day of the competition the WA teams will play two games and then one game a day after that.
Sutherland said they were put into pools and the top four from each pool would go into the classification round.
"After classification we go to quarters, then semis then gold medal game, if you lose semi then you play bronze game," he said.
Jemillah Dawson
I started as a journalist in 2011 and now manage mastheads in the South West of WA. My passion is politics and sport. I believe we are the voice for the community but also we inform the community of what they need to know. Email jemillah.dawson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
I started as a journalist in 2011 and now manage mastheads in the South West of WA. My passion is politics and sport. I believe we are the voice for the community but also we inform the community of what they need to know. Email jemillah.dawson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
