Bea Crane is the only regional player to represent WA at the School Sports Australia Games this year. Photo: Nikki Bailey.
A talented Esperance footy player is gearing up to compete against the best young females from around the country at the School Sports Australia Games in Queensland this winter.
Newtown-Condingup Lions midfielder Beatrice Crane has been selected to play for the U15 girls WA Football squad in Moreton Bay in July.
Crane demonstrated her skills during four trials in Perth and said she was the only player from regional WA to be chosen in the squad.
She said although she did not know the other girls too well, she was “pretty excited and keen” to run alongside them against tough opponents.
“[The trials] started with 250 girls and then dropped to 80 then 30 and now the 25,” Crane said.
“[I’m looking forward] to just playing the other teams because it’s not something you can do every year.
“[We can win] I reckon, if we work together.”
Footy runs through Crane’s blood – she comes from a keen footy family and has been playing the sport for as long as she can remember.
“I love everything about it – the atmosphere like when you play, everything is just out of the picture,” she said.
Crane has always been a midfielder but in Moreton Bay she will have the opportunity to excel in a different position.
“They put me in the backline up there,” she said.
“I’d never played backline before so it’s a big change, but in the backline you’re just running onto the play and setting up the forwards.”
Crane’s footy career began at the Lions, where she played alongside the boys, before she moved across to the senior women’s squad last year.
Newtown-Condingup Club President Naomi White said Crane was skilled, courageous and had always “given the boys a run for their money”.
“We’ve watched her progress and it’s absolutely thoroughly deserved,” White said.
“She’s a great little player and she’s fair as well so she’s got everything going for her.
“Obviously she’ll be a big loss on the weeks that she’s not here for us but we can’t be more happy for her.”
In Esperance, girls play in the junior grades with the boys up to the U14’s and then switch to the senior women’s team when they become young teenagers.
At 14, Crane is one of the younger members of the women’s squad, though White said this year more than half of the Lions team was comprised of girls aged 14 and 15.
She said some of the girls can feel intimidated about taking the leap to the women’s competition but Crane has always “held her own”.
The competition in Queensland runs from July 26 to August 2 and includes seven sports.
More than 1,250 school-aged athletes are expected to compete, with more than 1,250 spectators in attendance, including Crane’s parents.
