Athletes flock to Wagga for Academy Games

The second year Southern Sport Academy have hosted the games, CEO Mark Calverley said they were a huge success.

"We couldn't be happier with how they went over the weekend, off the back of 2022 and lessons learnt, we were able to produce a Games that were right up there" Calverley said.

Seven sports were competed in across Wagga by athletes from eleven regional academies.

Local Academy athletes had great results, including gold in the boys basketball and bronze in the girls basketball.

In the cycling Rhys Thomas, William Peace, Sydney Chittendon, Patrick McRae, Elsie Russell, and Alexis Phillips all earned podium finishes against their competitors.

MORE LOCAL SPORT NEWS

Southern Sports Academy athletes were also awarded the most valuable players medals in the netball, with Emily McPherson voted by division one coaches and Zoe Curry by division two.

This was Curry's first experience at the Academy Games and she said she loved the opportunity to play different teams.

"It was pretty cool to see all different types of girls from different areas playing their netball games," Curry said.

The defender said she enjoys taking control in games and running her shooters.

"I feel like it was one of my strongest sets of games for a while, I tried my best and I think I played to the best of my abilities," she said.

In the first division team, Isabel Edmunds was also in her first Academy Games.

A shooter, Edmunds enjoyed the challenge of taking on new opponents across the weekend.

"It was so amazing play all the teams, it was such an interesting competitions, all the teams bought something new, so it was really exciting to play everyone," Edmunds said.

Living on a farm out of town, the Games being local was a relief, and plenty of family support for local athletes created a good atmosphere, with her team improving with each game.

"It was crazy being in there, the atmosphere was very different to what we're used to," she said.

"I did a lot of training beforehand, and I think not just me, all the shooters in the academy, we did well this weekend."

With great feedback coming from both parents and participants on the games, Calverley is pleased with how they have improved from last year's iteration.

The opening of the PCYC centre and moving of the triathlon to Oasis were particularly successful.

"Last year we were forced to spread basketball across three venues, which when you divide your resources is quite hard," Calverley said.

"To be able to have the basketball all out of the one venue was a big learning and success for us this year.

"The other big one was having triathlon in the centre of town. It was great having it out at the lake last year, we had our hand forced with the algae issue at Lake Albert this year but having it out of the Oasis, with the bike down Morgan street and run around Robertson Oval, the feedback from both the athletes, the officials, and the spectators, said having the triathlon in the centre of town really worked a treat."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: