MIDWAY through her first full BFNL A-grade netball season, Ruby Barkmeyer is reaping the rewards of hard work and lots of travel.
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The-15-year-old goal shooter has won selection in the School Sport Victoria 15-and-under team to contest the national championships in Adelaide next month.
Her selection follows a string of impressive performances for Geelong Grammar, the school she attends as a netball scholarship winner.
Ruby is one of only two non-Melbourne-based netballers in the 12-player squad, together with St Brigid's College Horsham's Maggie Caris.
It's not her first selection in the SSV team.
Ruby represented her state in Maitland, New South Wales, at 12-and-under level, while attending Crusoe College in 2013.
That team went through the championships undefeated.
Ruby said she was again looking forward to representing her state and welcomed the opportunity to develop her game against the nation’s best school-age netballers.
Her on-court success has not come without dedication, hard work and sacrifices on a personal and family level.
Each Saturday, Ruby spends her morning playing for her school in either Geelong or Melbourne.
She is then driven by parents Melissa and Jamie, or older brother Tom, to a BFNL venue to line-up for Kangaroo Flat, before heading back to school the next day.
This season she has also spent Tuesday night's representing the Victoria Netball League' Geelong Flyers.
Ruby said she hoped to make a career of netball.
The Victorian under-15 team will start the nationals as defending champions.
Ruby said it was great to be playing alongside a few familiar faces.
“It’s a whole new 15-and-under team, but there’s two girls I played under-12s with,” she said.
“We train every Friday night in Blackburn, so I don’t get home until about midnight. But’s it’s still very exciting.”
Ruby, a dual under-17 premiership player with Kangaroo Flat in 2014-15, said she had relished being a permanent member of the A-grade team after playing a couple of games last season.
“The club’s been good to me because I don’t get to train, I can only come home and play on Saturday’s,” she said.
“I’m happy with how I have been going.”
Her coach at Kangaroo Flat, 2014 premiership mentor Janelle Hobbs said Ruby had made a brilliant transition to A-grade netball and had a bright future in the sport.
"She's holding her own against everyone she's come up against," Hobbs said.
"She's so mature and been shooting really accurately - up in the high 80s (per cent).
"Also, just her movement and how she uses her body have been excellent - she has a huge future, Ruby, playing this well as a 15-year-old."