From the courtroom to the court: Darcy's baller journey

So it is somewhat of a surprise when she reveals that she has spent the last four years working at the Tamworth Local Court - a relatively mundane workplace which even Darcy says is "nothing interesting".

But that is not wholly true.

During her high school days, Darcy had no passion for the legal system. But after graduating, she started working as a court officer during her gap year, and subsequently enrolled to study law at the University of New England in Armidale.

"Once you sit in court and you get into the background of it, you think 'This isn't too bad'," Darcy said.

"Luckily UNE works quite well with the court, so they took me on and I've been studying three years now."

Part-time study with a full-time job would be enough for most people to juggle. But the 22-year-old is also an avid basketballer, and one of the three captains of the Tamworth Thunderbolts women's team.

"It's 'go' all the time," Darcy said of her many commitments. "But I'm one of those crazy morning people."

The triple-captaincy format is unusual, but passed its initial test nearly two weeks ago with flying colours.

Though the Thunderbolts lost their first three games of the season, all were closely contested and took place against the two best sides in the competition.

In tandem with Sami Schuberth and Mikaela Watson, her co-captains, Darcy will go into this weekend's fixtures with greater confidence after the experimental configuration "worked really well".

"We've all got such different ideas, and we just bounce off each other," she said.

"You can see that reflected in the team itself, because we've got new people in the association and then you've got people like me that are returning after COVID.

"We've got a really broad scope of people in the team, and that builds such good morale."

Having played basketball since she was 10 years old, Darcy came up through the Thunderbolts' age group system, save for her last year when Tamworth didn't have the numbers for a team and she played for Maitland instead.

But having been a member of the senior women's team for two years before the COVID layoff, Darcy said there was "an absolute buzz" ahead of their return.

"[Sitting out when COVID hit] was terrible," she said.

"We couldn't get onto the court fast enough. We were all coming to training, but nothing feels as good as putting on the uniform and actually taking the court."

The Thunderbolts will travel to Sydney for their second round of games this weekend. They will play twice against the Queanbeyan Yowies on Saturday, before taking on Moss Vale Magic on Sunday.

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