ELLA Brabant has been chosen for the North West girls’ touch footy side and she is headed to state with a smile on her face.
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The year 6 Ross Hill student will be joined by Paige Vickery from Bundarra Central School to play at the state touch carnival at Parramatta on August 18-20.
Ella had a wide grin and was visibly excited about playing in Sydney.
Her choice to play touch embodied the reason why so many young people take up a sport.
“It’s running and running gives you the most energy and it’s really fun to play and get out of school to go play and have a run around with all your friends and have a challenge up against other teams,” she said.
“You’re trying to win, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t win, because you just have fun.”
Ella said she made it to the North West trials last year, but was unsuccessful at her state bid.
This year, she followed the same pathway as the boys touch hopefuls and made it through.
Training has started, and Ella said their first game was against tough customers.
“We played against the boys that are going and they beat us because they did intercepting a lot,” she said.
“They dragged us in, and they went around us, so it was really hard.”
Ella felt the game taught them some lessons, and highlighted some of things to polish for Parramatta.
The girls often would pass without keeping track of the boys, who would sweep in for the ball.
“They’re really fast and it made us think and our coach said we’ll be playing people who aren’t as fast as boys, so it’s going to be a bit easier,” she said.
They were left a little ragged chasing the boys around.
Ella said she didn’t know the final score.
“Nope, we didn’t get told,” she smiled.
Ella also dances, does Little Athletics and plays Oztag.