Young netballer's star is on the rise

Former Makahu School student Kelly Jury (17) is making a real impression in the netball world as, for the second year in a row, she has been selected to attend the Netball New Zealand National Development Camp in December.

As Kelly describes it, this camp is like a trial for a trial as only 60 girls nationally are chosen to attend and of them, 24 are put forward to trial for the New Zealand Secondary School team.

This has been a big year of netball for Kelly as she was chosen to be vice captain of the NPGHS Premier 1 team. At the Lower North Island regionals, Kelly's team came away with third place and qualified for nationals where it ranked12th.

She has also played for the Taranaki U17 A Team, Aotea U17 Team, New Zealand Maori Secondary Schools and Manawatu NPC team (which included Taranaki, Wanganui, and Hawke's Bay regions).

"It's all been an amazing experience to play with and against some of the best netballers in the country and being a roommate with a Silver Fern (Te Huinga) was pretty awesome too."

Kelly says she has played netball since she was seven. "I love netball because I can get out there and meet new people while staying fit and healthy."

Kelly started her netball career playing goal shoot, "but I wanted a bit of a change this year, so I have been playing as a defence and have been selected for the camp playing as GK".

Kelly's star is certainly shining brightly and shows no signs of slowing.

"I can't wait to head off to camp, I really hope to one day make a career out of this".