The July school holidays can't come quick enough for McCarthy Catholic College's Tarnee Ingram and Emily Dietrich.
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But, it's not for the reason you might think.
The talented duo will spend the first week of the holidays mixing with the best and brightest young female league players after being selected to represent NSW Combined Catholic Colleges (CCC) at the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Championships.
The pinnacle event for schools league in the country, it's only the second year there has been an 18s girls competition.
Ingram, who will play hooker, is one of four players backing up from last year's inaugural CCC side and can't wait to lace up the boots again, with the tournament one of the best experiences of her fledgling but blossoming career.
Dietrich is also in the fledgling stages of her career.
She hasn't even been playing league for a year; the NSW All Schools 16s Championships last September her first real league competition.
Bottom age for the 18s, the recent selection trials were really more about the experience.
So it was quite a surprise to hear her name read out as one of the wingers, and fullback pick-up, to play at Coffs Harbour from July 6-12.
In a similar boat last year, Ingram this time round captained Northern Country at the trials, and as well as leading them to three wins, picked up the players' player accolade their game against Southern Country.
Looking ahead to the nationals, she spoke about feeling "a bit nervous" but being excited about "playing alongside all the girls".
They had the first training session altogether down in Sydney on the weekend just past.
"It was awesome, so much fun," Dietrich said.
"Lots of learning for me."
Both are back off down to Sydney this weekend, but for different sporting endeavours.
Ingram will be hitting the court with Tamworth at the netball Senior State Titles while Dietrich will suit up for the Central North under 18s girls at the country/state junior rugby union championships.
Union is where her footy roots are.
She's been playing since she was nine and has been a regular in NSW Country sides over the years.
But, since discovering league it has started to hold more and more of a fascination for her.
Presently of a weekend she plays union with Scone in the Friday night competition, and then league with the Scone 17s of a Saturday.
Playing her first game two weeks ago, the main idea was to get more league experience.
"And my friends wanted me to play and I wanted to play with them," Dietrich continued.
She is still finding her feet a bit, but is really enjoying league at the moment.
"I'm enjoying it a lot and it's a new pathway but it's got a lot more opportunities," she said.
Ingram has already experienced some of those opportunities.
Not wanting to interrupt her HSC studies too much she didn't end up playing any of the competition games this year. But she trained with them when she could and had a run in a couple of their trial games.
The plan is to, once everything is done with school, relocate to Sydney and hopefully get a crack next year.
In the immediate her focus is this weekend's state titles, where she will be stepping up to the Tamworth opens side.
