A TRIO of Sunraysia under-12s cricketers was this week selected in School Sport Victoria’s Team Vic squads for 2021.
Makenzie Holy, Josh Driscoll and Colby Marr, who all study at Irymple Secondary College, made School Sport Victoria’s Team Vic Merit teams.
The two teams to mark the 13 best under-12s girls and boys cricketers were selected after a week of skills and personal development training in Shepparton last week.
After winning all games he played in and having his side sit on top of the ladder, Josh Driscoll said it meant a lot to him to be “one of the best in Vic”.
“The fact that now I’m in the system is awesome,” Josh said.
Josh had personal highlights, including a pair of double-digit batting performances and picking up five wickets across the four days of action. But he said it just as memorable seeing his step-brother Colby Marr almost score a half-century (49), and the opportunity he had to work with passionate coaches.
“One of our fielding coaches was really intense and it was really good … because he cared. It gets you fired up and makes you work hard,” he said.
Josh’s father, Shane Driscoll, who was in Shepparton to attend the week long State Development Competition, said the attention to detail of coaches encouraged his son to improve his game.
“The coaches would sit down with (participants) for five minutes and talk about their innings and help them process what they did and what they could work on,” Shane said.
“Josh really did try very hard down there. He had to work hard to impress everyone.”
School Sport program manager Ian Landy said the girls and boys ‘Merit teams’, designated as such because neither squad would play interstate teams this year, was an acknowledgment of the skill and personal development students had shown.
He hoped Holy, Josh and Colby could “take back those skills and share them with their clubs” in Mildura.
Max Thompson, from Swan Hill College, was also selected for the boy’s Merit team. Given the limited number of places, Landy said it was a good effort by the Sunraysia region to have three players selected.
“Three out of 26 is not a bad outcome,” he said.
