MAX Chillingworth is in Newcastle this weekend trying out for a NSW Country Under 18 berth.
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The 16-year-old McCarthy Catholic College Year 11 student has been named in the Country Under 18 squad of 15, a squad that will be pruned to 10 to play for NSWC at the national titles in Ballarat later this year.
He is hoping to make the Ballarat trip but also improve his basketball as his Tamworth Under 18 side waits to see if its nomination for a spot in the Country Premier League is approved.
“We’ve nominated,” the talented point guard said on Thursday at the Sports Dome.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure if we’ll get in. It would be good to play against some of the players I’ve played with in Albury.”
Down at Albury he played in one of two Country teams at a national tournament.
“We went through undefeated until the final game and lost in the grand final to the other NSW Country side by 15,” he said.
Chillingworth averaged 14 points per game down at Albury and impressed selectors so much they named him as one of the 15 for the final training weekend in Newcastle.
That gives him a chance of further impressing selectors as the squad undergoes an intensive weekend of scrimmages and running through the many team plays to be used at Ballarat.
However he knows he will have to be at his best.
A product of the Tamworth Thunderbolt junior system, he’s been playing for 13 years, starring in mini ball and rocking on through all the age groups.
He also played games for the senior Tamworth Thunderbolts in last year’s State League season.
“I didn’t play much but I did train a lot with them.”
That helped his game immensely as well for a young man who prefers to play point guard and stands just over 1.8m and six foot two inches in the old empirical system.
Chillingworth was one of 11 Tamworth junior players to play at the Australian Country Junior Basketball Camp at Albury/Wodonga earlier this month.
They had undergone rigorous training sessions to make the Country Under 14 to 18 teams.
64 teams and more than 700 players, coaches and officials from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand took part, Tamworth Basketball Association administrator Peter McDonald said.
“The Tamworth contingent performed extremely well, with many making play-offs and grand finals with their respective teams,” he said.
“Ruby Murphy won a Gold Medal with her 14 girls’ team and Max Chillingworth was selected in the 15-man training squad for the NSW Country Under 18s.”
TAMWORTH REPRESENTATIVES: U14 Girls - Ruby Murphy, Sienna Kennedy, U14 Boys - Nathan Clarke, Ryan Bath, Ben Pearce, Tom Sheppard, Will Meyers, U16 Girls - Miah O’Sullivan, Jessica Watt, U16 Men - Riley Murphy, U18 Men - Max Chillingworth.