Tarnee Ingram is preparing to take a step into what she hopes will be her future.
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On Monday the Tamworth teenager has her first training session with the Cronulla Sharks Tarsha Gale Cup squad.
The start of a journey that she hopes will lead to playing professionally, speaking with the Leader on her way back from the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships Ingram was looking forward to it.
She was still riding the high of one of the best weeks in her fledgling career.
"It was a really good experience," the 16-year-old said of the nationals.
"It was very tough footy, and there was a lot of talent up there, which was good. It kind of improved my footy a bit too."
"Hopefully I can get a chance to do it next year as I was the younger age this year."
Playing hooker, she was pretty happy with how she performed.
The first time a girls division has been incorporated into the nationals, her Combined Catholic College side just fell short of making the final, going down 12-10 to Queensland in their semi-final.
It was a dramatic finish with CCC scoring with a minute to go to set up a conversion to level the game and push it into extra-time. But unfortunately the kick just missed.
It was one of only two losses they had over the tournament. The other was to CHS in their pool game, the eventual champions prevailing 5-4 (there was a quirky rule that the first try of the match is worth five points rather than four).
The highest level of league Ingram has been exposed to, it has only whet her appetite for what is to come.
"I'm definitely looking forward to playing Tarsha Gale with the Sharks next year," she said.
She has also already set a goal to make the Australian Schoolgirls side next year.
That she went from one league adventure virtually straight into another is nothing new in Ingram's world. Her life is pretty non-stop between school, her part-time work with the NRL game development team and at Goonoo Goonoo station, and her varied and many sporting commitments.
Inbetween training with the CCC side, the last month alone she has also been away for oztag and netball, and she is just about to start training with the North West under-23s team ahead of the [netball] Regional State Cup tournament in October.
But she juggles it all with aplomb.
"We're pretty proud of her because her last report she's done fairly well in all her classes, so she's going well, managing well," dad Richard said.
Ingram wasn't the only northern talent involved in the nationals with PLC Armidale's Mia Montgomery playing half-back for the NSW Combined Independent Schools (CIS) team.
