Chelsea to shoot for NZ

0
1791

Waimea College will have its latest national age group representative when Chelsea Neame takes the court for the New Zealand under-16 girls’ basketball team at the Australian State championships in Geelong next month.
Chelsea, 14, was selected for the national team as a forward in March after producing a series of strong performances for the Tasman under-15 at nationals in Wellington last year. The year 10 student has already been to two training camps with the national squad and will attend a third in Auckland just prior to flying to Melbourne for the July 5-12 tournament.
“The training camps have been focussing on learning all the plays,” Chelsea says. “But I’ve also been doing a lot of fitness work on my own and shooting lots and lots of baskets at home.”
Chelsea has been playing basketball since she was five and says she has learned a lot from former Tall Black and Nelson Giant Ed Book who has coached her school teams at Broadgreen Intermediate and Waimea College. She has also recieved in-house coaching from her mother Amanda who played for the New Zealand Basketball Institute.
Chelsea has been fundraising with raffle and sausage sizzles to help pay for her flights to the training camps and Geelong and says he has also received great support from the Nelson-Tasman business community.