SOUTH Zeal teenager Jo Binns has been selected to represent England in the Under 17 Netball Squad this season.

Jo, 16, who is a pupil at the Maynard School in Exeter, attended final trials in Portsmouth at the weekend, as one of the top 17 players in the country, from which just 12 were selected for the England team.

The squad's first competition will be in Canterbury at the end of February against Ireland, Wales and Gibraltar in the England Netball Association's U17 Championship.

The talented player, who is also in the England U17 basketball training squad, has been playing netball since the age of ten but first began believing in herself in March 1999 when an England scout picked her out at the National Schools competition.

'It was always a dream to get this far but it wasn't until then I really started to think I could do it,' she said.

Determined to get her England cap, Jo had to play a waiting game until she was old enough to classify as a Talent Two player and a potential member of the England side.

Jo's gruelling training schedule includes three netball sessions a week, running, swimming, cycling and circuit training and she attends the West of England Netball Academy at St Austell once a fortnight.

'I do some kind of fitness training every day and often there are school matches at weekends,' she said.

Trying to fit it all in with school work in the run up to her GCSEs is hard work, she admits, but she would not have it any other way.

'Playing for England is going to be an amazing experience and I get on really well with the rest of the team.

'My school work is still very important and I want to go to university but I also have an ambition to get in the England Open Squad which is a lot more competitive than this level.'

Cathy Gabbittas, a member of the Maynard School's PE staff, said Jo had been extremely focussed in her training and had followed an exacting programme with real determination.

'Women's netball is extremely competitive and one of the toughest sports in which to gain national selection,' she said.

'Jo plays centre — a very popular position — so her task has been even harder. We are all very proud of her.'

The Maynard School has a fine tradition of producing sportswomen who compete at national level. Last year, 17-year-old Tonia Savchenko gained selection for the U19 basketball squad.