Mackensey House: Wodonga Raiders best and fairest still keen to pursue swimming dream

Best and fairest in A-grade at Wodonga Raiders, the 21-year-old made her switch from the midcourt into circle defence look seamless and thrived in a role of increased leadership.

However, House is just as comfortable in water as she is on land, having reached national level in the pool before the pandemic struck.

"Freestyle was my main stroke and I got to do some pretty cool things with that," House said.

"I raced against the likes of Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell at nationals a few times, which was pretty cool when you're warming up and they jump in your lane.

"COVID messed with the schedule because the pools were shut and I couldn't cross the border.

"I was super excited about nationals in Perth, we'd booked our flights and accommodation when they sent a message out saying they'd cancelled it.

"I was gutted after that.

"In swimming, you work a whole year for one meet and when they just get rid of it on you, it's pretty demoralising.

"I definitely want to have another crack at it.

"It's hard at the moment because I work in the mornings, which is exactly the same time training's on so you've got to pick one or the other and being a uni student, I need to work.

"But it's something I love and I'm not done with it yet."

House, who used to wake up at 5am for swimming training, now sets her alarm even earlier for morning shifts at Adrenaline and is one year into a physiotherapy degree.

But sport remains central to her lifestyle, especially at her second home of Birallee Park.

"I wasn't bad at school but I didn't love it," House said.

"Sport was my fun, safe place so every time I got to do something like that, I loved being there.

"I can't encourage kids enough to keep going with their sport, I think it's so important, especially for your mental health.

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"As you start to get into those higher years in school, when it's stressful, this is when you can have fun and be with your friends.

"A big thing for us this year was coming together as a group outside of netball, being really social and making that a focus.

"That definitely made a big difference.

"I can't wait for next year, to see what we can do, because we were so close this year.

"We've got nothing to lose so we're keen to have a crack and finals is our goal.

"It's going to be super exciting to challenge some of those top sides.

"We definitely have the ability to do so, we've just got to believe in ourselves.

"The way we finished off the season was super exciting for us."

The experience of House will be crucial again as Raiders look to improve on their seventh-placed finish, while mum and A-grade coach Jodie will also oversee the newly-formed 15-and-under side as part of the Ovens and Murray's expansion for 2023.

"We have a really solid bunch of young kids at the club and introducing the under-15s next season is exciting," House said.

"We had close to 50 kids trial, so there's massive interest in the club and I think it'll be really good for the whole league in general.

"We have such a young group of players (in A-grade), so me being only 21 and being in one of those leadership positions is interesting.

"I enjoy leading a group of people but I certainly learn from the older people in our club as well, how they carry themselves and try to implement that with my team.

"I don't tell anyone what to do, we work as a unit as everyone's open to feedback from our coach and each other.

"We're super lucky to have Mum coach us.

"She's so knowledgeable and probably doesn't give herself enough credit for how much she knows.

"Seeing the progression in Taylor Donelan was definitely a reflection of her ability to work with someone who was playing C-grade and now she's a standout in A-grade, which I think is pretty exciting."

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