At 11-years-of-age, 170 centimetres tall and a talent on the courts, Mackenzie Roddam is on a fast track to basketball stardom.
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The St Michael’s Catholic Primary School student has been named on the state PSSA girl’s basketball team after a blistering performance at the state titles playing for MacKillop.
With state league players for parents, it was no surprise to anyone that Mackenzie Roddam excelled in the sport.
Except for maybe Mackenzie herself.
The modest 11-year-old said she had a “nice surprise” when she was the first name called on the state team.
“I was pretty happy. I had my parents up there to support me and my friend’s parents came up to because they had a daughter in the South Coast team. It was great,” Mackenzie said.
It was a long journey to state glory for North Nowra’s Mackenzie Roddam, who first had to trial for a Wollongong team, which then went on to play five Catholic cluster teams.
From here she was selected in the MacKillop representative team, which encompassed Catholic school players from as far as North Sydney to Canberra and Wagga Wagga.
In May Mackenzie travelled with the MacKillop team to Albury to play in the State PSSA tournament, held over four days.
MacKillop was strong in the lead-up to the finals, but went into the final against Riverina as underdogs.
“The game before the final we only won against CIS by two points, so we all thought we were going to get beaten,” Mackenzie said.
However MacKillop were a force to be reckoned with in the finals and comfortably defeated the host team 51-19.
After the finals and presentation the 10-strong state team was named, with Mackenzie picked as one of the best out of 140 players.
She will now play in a week-long national championship held in Townsville in August.
NSW will come up against all states, but despite the heightened competition, Mackenzie had a clear goal for the competition.
“I just want to play hard, play well, get some court time and hopefully win,” she said.
“I am also looking forward to hanging out with the girls from all over the state.”
Mackenzie followed her older brother and parents into basketball when she was six-years-old.
“I have always been at the stadium because of mum and dad,” she said.
By eight she was playing in the Shoalhaven Tigers under 12 representative team.
Apart from her school representative duties, this year Mackenzie also played for the Illawarra Hawks under 14s team where she was also selected in the CPL.
In the lead-up to nationals Mackenzie has been busy selling raffle tickets to help fund her trip.
“I just want to thank all my family and friends who have bought tickets,” she said.