Warabas and Guyas ready to dive into Water Polo NSW carnival

Tamworth District Water Polo will send a team to the competition, also known as the Big Orange Festival, in both the Under 12 Boys and Under 12 Mixed divisions, with particularly high hopes for the former.

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"Our boys have been quite competitive, this is their third Under 12s tournament this season," team manager Libby Magann said.

"They played at Woy Woy a couple of weeks ago, and at Balmain, they've done quite well and placed in the top three."

The boys' side has been nicknamed 'Waraba' (meaning 'turtle' in the local Gamilaraay language), while the mixed team has been dubbed 'Guya', which translates to 'fish'.

There are 34 teams set to compete across all three divisions in Orange, with 117 games to take place between Friday, March 11, and Sunday, March 13.

While the expectations are not as high for Tamworth's mixed team, which features a number of players well below the age limit of 12, Magann hopes the players can have fun and take away important experience from the tournament.

"For a lot of them, it's their first season learning the ropes and it's their first time touring away from the local comp," she said.

"They enjoy it, for some of them this will be their third tournament of the season but they're really young and keen. It'll be nice to see them have so much fun.

"They just learn really quickly and they develop really well. The tournaments help because they can see other people play and the tricks they can do and they learn more about the rules."

The players are also expected to enjoy the facilities at the Orange Aquatic Centre, which Magann said has a "good setup" with three matches at a time to run throughout the weekend.

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