Rebekah leaps into netball glory!

Talented Year 11 netball player Rebekah Aspin has been selected for both The Regional Academy and the prestigious Northern Thunder National Talent League squad. The Regional Academy is part of the England Netball pathway. Being part of the Northern Thunder Squad means that Rebekah is part of the development squad for one of the top teams in the National Netball Super League.

Rebekah began playing netball when she was a pupil at St Nicholas Junior School. In Year 4, she joined her elder sister Natalie at Blackpool Netball Club and she has been selected for Lancashire every year since she was 11.

In May 2011, along with approximately 100 other players from Lancashire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside, Rebekah was selected by her county to attend a talent festival in Blackburn. Here, she caught the eyes of the regional selectors and was one of just 35 girls selected to attend trials in October for the Regional Academy High Performance Squad.

Prior to the trial Rebekah attended a talent day in Sheffield as well as three pre-trial training sessions during the summer in Manchester. Unfortunately on the talent day, she was suffering with a very heavy cold and had to withdraw early from the trial. Despite this, she had certainly made an impression at the training sessions and was invited to be assessed at the first academy training session on 19th October.

In the meantime, Rebekah successfully attended trials for the Northern Thunder's National Talent Squad and, having previously been a member of the Youth Development squad, was delighted to be asked to progress to this next level. A week later, and no doubt boosted by her selection for the Northern Thunder Talent Squad, a confident performance saw Rebekah also gain selection for the 2011/2012 Regional High Performance Squad.

This is a superb achievement for this talented young player whose ambition is to represent England and to gain selection for the Northern Thunder Super League team. Rebekah still trains with, and plays for, Blackpool Netball Club. She also attends fitness training at UCLAN, trains once a week with Northern Thunder and attends the Regional Academy once a fortnight.

This weekend Rebekah played her first game for the Northern Thunder Development squad against Loughborough. Northern Thunder won the game by 45 goals to 38 and Rebekah played for two quarters of the game as Wing Defence. We wish Rebekah well in the next stage of her netball career and look forward to hearing of her progress.

Posted by: Miss G Raby
Date: Thursday 09/02/2012

  • Rebekah leaps into netball glory!