MIELA Roberts will begin living out her basketball dreams this weekend, with the 12-year-old one of 32 girls selected for Basketball Victoria’s Country Metro Challenge.
Roberts will represent one of the four Victoria Country teams to compete against Victoria Metro in the competition at Red Energy Arena in Bendigo this Sunday and Monday.
The Year 7 student at St Mary MacKillop College is also part of Basketball Victoria’s under-14 Future Development Program, where she trains weekly in the Swan Hill Academy under the guidance of head coach Sharon Denham.
Denham was full of praise for Roberts and her commitment to the sport, with her selection just reward for a young player with a bright future in the game.
“Miela’s been training really well in our future development program since April and will continue to do so through to August,” Denham told The Guardian.
“This weekend is just the next step in her development and is a strong pathway for her to take her basketball to another level.”
Roberts was the only participant selected from the Swan Hill Academy.
Despite being in the middle of a 20-week training block with Denham and the future development program, she will park her commitments for this week to concentrate on the Country Metro Challenge.
Miela’s father Ash, along with mother Jenelle, will make the trek down to Bendigo to support the budding star, with the family hoping it’s just the beginning of Miela’s journey in the sport she loves.
“We’re very proud of her, after all the hard work she’s put in, she’s starting to see some reward for effort, which is great,” Ash said.
“She was an emergency last year for the Vic Country team in the Golden Nugget competition at Albury, but for her to make this squad is great.
“We’re all just really happy for her and hopefully this is just the start, because she just loves her basketball.”
