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Jillian Shava Sports Reporter
TEN schools representing the country’s provinces will compete in the National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) Under-20 netball tournament at Nyamapanda, Mashonaland Central, tomorrow.

The 10 schools booked their places in the nationals by winning their respective provincial competitions. Mpopoma High School will be representing Bulawayo province.

Mpopoma High sports director James Rugwevera said his 15-member team left Bulawayo for Nyamapanda yesterday in order to acclimatise ahead of the tournament.

“We decided that the team leaves early for the tournament to ensure the players get enough time to rest and acclimatise to the conditions they will be playing in on Friday (tomorrow),” said Rugwevera.

He said some players in the Mpopoma team play for Division 1 netball side Freestars, which he hopes will give them an edge over their opponents.

“We believe this mixture of experienced players and others will help take us to the final. Last year we qualified for the national tournament and finished eighth, but we hope to improve our standing this year by finishing in the top 5, if we fail to make it to the final,” Rugwevera said.

Shadreck Mlauzi, the provincial convener for Nash Bulawayo, said they had done all they could to ensure that Mpopoma adequately prepared for tomorrow’s event, as the provincial representatives, and wished them the best.

“They displayed some amazing good ball handling skills in the provincials, which we hope they will reproduce at the national finals. Their coaches now just have to work on the players’ mindset to help them go far,” he said.