The netball program has been offered through the academy for over 15 years and over the past six years has been supported by the Glen Innes and District Services Club.

Roughly 60 girls trialled for the program, all coming from across the Northern Inland region.

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Congratulations to the following athletes who have been named to represent the NIAS in the 2021 'Glen Innes and District Services Club' Netball program:

Victoria Alliston, Indira Barratt, Ella Beveridge, Tara Lavender, Addison Murphy, Lauren Wilczak, Ella Wyndham (Inverell), Caitlin Atkinson (Scone), Charlotte Baker (Uralla), Isabella Banister (Saumerez Ponds), Hannah Bower (Daruka), Elinor Brooks (Murrurundi), Charlotte Craig (Mullaley), Jessica Ferguson, Scout Newbery, Phoebe Paul, Jacey Ross, Holly Sheedy (Gunnedah), Tori Gentz (Mount Russell), Sophie Hall, Lucy Lockyer (Warialda), Gabrielle Higgins, Grace Shanley, Imogen Smith (Tamworth), Lilly Higgins, Mia Lincoln, Ella Russell (Armidale), Isabel Kerr, Keira Kerr (Appleby), Charlotte Leonard (Nemingha), Bronte Matthews (Quirindi), Camilla Teague (Timor).

There was an additional five girls who were unable to attend the trial day that will have the opportunity to trial for the squad in the middle of December at the squad's first meet.

The squad will travel to Glen Innes for a pre-program training day with fitness screening and an induction into the academy, followed by lunch at the Glen Innes and District Services Club. The squad will meet again in the new year with the first official training session to be held in February, in alignment with the Netball NSW training pathway.

Last weekend, the 2021 NIAS Hockey and Basketball squads had their final training sessions for the year. Both the 'Wests Entertainment Group' Hockey program and the 'Tamworth City Toyota' Basketball program trained at sporting facilities in Armidale. The hockey program set out earlier in the morning on November 29 to beat some of the heat as they trained on the New England Hockey Fields. Following their training session on the field they had the opportunity to head indoors at SportUNE to complete a strength and conditioning session with SportUNE's high performance manager Matt Pine.

Whilst the basketball program began later in the morning, they had their formal induction into the academy and followed suit with the hockey program to also engage in a strength and conditioning session.

The basketball girls head coach Greg Irwin said: "It was a great session, the athletes all enjoyed the strength and conditioning and really pushed themselves to get the most out of it."

Both the hockey and basketball squads will return to training sessions in the new year as athletes set their sights on bringing strong competition to the Your Local Club Academy Games in April next year.

Applications are open for the 2021 Northern Inland Academy of Sport Lone Star program.

This program offers financial assistance to athletes who will be between the ages of 14 and 18 in 2021 (born 2003-2007) who compete at the state, national or international level in sports that are not currently offered as a NIAS core sporting program.

NIAS is encouraging athletes who meet the eligibility criteria to apply on our website at nias.org.au.