Netball: Girls head for Dublin to mix it with best of Britain

The best schoolgirl netball players in Scotland are preparing to head off to a major tournament this week with a spring in their step.

The Scotland under-17 team will depart for the Netball Europe Championships in Dublin on Thursday where they will compete in the performance group with Wales, England and Northern Ireland.

The 12 players selected for the squad have been working hard for the event over the last couple of months under the watchful eye of coach Lesley MacDonald.

And as well as looking to impress in this tournament, the players will have one eye on the coming years when they will be looking to break into the under-21 squad that will compete in the World Youth Championships in Glasgow in two years' time, and also the full Scotland squad for the Commonwealth Games in the same city in 2014.

Coach MacDonald, who has played for Scotland over the last decade and captained them at the World Championships in 2007, said: "The girls are really looking forward to testing themselves over in Dublin.

"It will be a step up in quality from what the girls are used to in school and club matches, but it will give them great experience as they look to grow as netball players over the next few years.

"As well as the under-17s, the under-19s are also competing in their own Euros in Wales this weekend and, with the under-21 team starting next year ahead of the event in Glasgow in 2013, the next few days gives these young players a good chance to put down a marker and cement their place at national level."

MacDonald admits that she does not know too much about the teams that the under-17s will come up against this weekend, starting on Friday afternoon against Wales, but her squad are ready for whatever comes their way.

"Since January, we have been able to meet up each fortnight and work on things as a squad and that has been really useful. The girls come from all over Scotland and they are now starting to get to know each other's strength and weaknesses and understanding the way that I want them to play," the coach added.

To get to this stage, the girls have had to get past a number of obstacles starting back last September.

That was when the first trials were held and a larger squad was named.After that, the players were watched playing for their schools and clubs by MacDonald and others before she chose the final 12 just before Christmas.

"We wanted to name the squad with quite a bit of notice so that those picked could get focused ahead of this weekend and could juggle national training and such like with their other responsibilities," MacDonald said.

Scotland under-17 squad: Ashley Baillie (Holy Cross High, Hamilton), Amy Craig (Our Lady's High, Cumbernauld), Caillie Douce and Jo Pettitt (Peebles High School), Ella Gibbons (Lornshill Academy, Alloa), Lauren Gilmour (Stromness Academy, Orkney), Emma Hardie (Duncanrig Secondary, East Kilbride), Hannah McCaig (Balerno Community High, Edinburgh), Nicola McCleery (Calderglen High, East Kilbride), Crystal Matthan (Perth High School), Catriona Thomson (Hillhead High School, Glasgow), Christy Welsh (Robert Gordon's College).