Twelve months ago Rachel Holmes was playing for her school team in the Scottish under-17 Cup Final and representing Scotland under-17s at the European Junior Championships in Sheffield.  She never thought that a year later she would be a fully-fledged member of the Scotland senior team, with both eyes firmly fixed on November’s World Championships in New Zealand.

It has been a meteoric rise for the 17-year-old from Lochwinnoch in Renfrewshire but she has thrown herself into the rigours of senior netball, and says that she is enjoying the challenge of playing at a new level.

“I don’t feel younger than the rest of them when I’m with the squad. They include everyone. But they do look out for me and check I’m alright,” she said.

After a surprise call-up to the senior squad last autumn, goal shooter Rachel travelled to Singapore with the team to play in the Four Nations Tournament, a warm up for the World Championships.

“It was insane. I didn’t expect to go at all. To end up going there and playing was an excellent experience. There was such a great team ethos. Everyone there was supporting everyone else.

“I was warming up with Lesley MacDonald [the Scotland captain] before the game against Canada and it just hit me that I was in the team.”

While other members of the Scotland team fit in training and competing around a career, Rachel, who plays her club netball for Glasgow club Bellahouston, has had her studies to contend with. She has just finished sitting Highers in Maths, English, Biology, Physics and PE, and still has another year of school ahead of her.

And on top of a packed school schedule and national team training programme she also plays basketball for Scottish National League side St Mirren.  But she insists that netball is her main priority, especially with a World Championship team berth at stake.

“Netball’s always come first. I want to say that I did everything I possibly could to get there.”

Coming from a sporty family – her father Martin represented Scotland in rowing - Rachel has no shortage of help with her training.

“I try and do as much as I can. I’ve got a netball post at home and I do 200 shots a night. I get my wee brother, who is 6’2”, to come and mark me and then hopefully I’m not as daunted when I come up against the big players.”

She also takes inspiration from other young players breaking through onto the international stage. England’s Joanne Harten, another 17-year-old goal shooter, recently impressed against World Champions New Zealand.
“She shot 28 out of 30 against the best team in the world. Watching that shows that there’s hope there somewhere.”

She also gets plenty advice from the more experienced members of the Scotland team. “They will ask ‘how did you handle it?’ because they all know what’s it like.”

While her senior career is only just beginning, Rachel has already thought about life after netball.  “I’d love to be able to coach after I finish playing – hopefully that’s quite far away though.” With that in mind she already has a Level One coaching qualification under her belt.

For now she will have a month to relax before returning to training. “We’ve got June off to take a break and recover from the season. Then it’s hardcore training through July and August before selection in September.”

One thing is for sure, she won’t use her time off to take up her family’s new hobby, bicycle polo. “They’ve tried to get me to go along but I don’t think my coaches would be too happy if I turned up to training with a load of injuries.”

AW

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