Success on the court for Jayde James

By Bill Poulos

After a gruelling selection process across three levels of competition, emerging Moree tennis star Jayde James did her hometown proud when representing the north-west in the NSW PSSA State competition at Broadmeadow recently.

Jayde, who turns 12 this month, earlier competed against her Moree Public School peers and gained school team selection.

The team competed against schools from across the shire and Jayde was selected to join the Moree Zone team, which travelled to Gunnedah for the north-west selection trials.

Jayde, a Year 6 student at Moree Public School, won every match bar one and was selected as second-seed for the north-west team in the PSSA State competition at Broadmeadow.

Jayde’s proud parents, Jeremy and Kelly, were courtside for every serve.

Mrs James said the north-west team met tough competition from Sydney, the north and south coasts and the Hunter region.

“It took a bit for Jayde to warm up and her first game was a slaughter, but she picked herself up and held her own for the remainder of the competition, as did the rest of the team with most matches going to deuce,” Mrs James said.

The north-west side finished fourth in their pool and headed into the finals, with the team finishing 8th overall from 13 regions across NSW.

The boys placed eighth and girls placed 10th in their respected events.

“Jayde loves tennis and trains two days a week with Margie Buckley, and has competed in Moree competitions since she was in Hot Shots at the age of four,” Mrs James said.

“She has a taste for competitions now and would like to do a few of the tournaments locally, against other towns as part of the Moree Tennis Club.

“It was so good to see her compete and Jeremy and I were both fortunate to be able to watch her play at the state competition.

“Jayde is so focused when she plays and played some tough games, but still managed to finish most to a deuce and win several matches,” Mrs James smiled.