A pupil from Felsted School has been selected for the Surrey Storm National Performance League (NPL) U19 team.
Lydia Rowlands, 18, will play in the centre position alongside and against the best players in her age category. She joined the school in 2016 as a sports scholar and feels that the coaches and program at Felsted, led by benecoMavericks player Lindsay Keable, gave her confidence to trial for Surrey Storm’s NPL team last year.
After her first trial, Lydia was asked to return to the final selection of the squad and despite not making the final 16 was invited to play in the development squad and train alongside the NPL team.
She played for the U21 squad in the 2017 summer NPL tournament against national U21 England players. With this experience and new knowledge she was successful in achieving selection for the 2018 U19 NPL team.
Lydia, who has also become an ambassador for the sport brand Gilbert, said: “I am proud of my achievements this year, where I have been able to give back to Felsted Netball, such as coaching the younger years, supporting the wider outreach programme and co-captaining the first team.”
Lindsay added: “We are very proud of Lydia’s achievement, her level of intensity at training inspires our netballers at Felsted to raise their game and she has been a role model to all our players.”