The award is presented to the scholarship holder who is acknowledged by the SERAS coaching staff as being a great role model for the sport of netball.

The honour is a well- deserved reward for Clements who has been a scholarship holder with the SERAS program for five years.

“It was really good. Especially after five years with SERAS, to finish off with that award was great,” Clements said.

Clements has been one of SERAS’s most consistent performers in recent years, in particular excelling when the program had teams competing in the ACT Netball State League between 2007 and 2009.

The 18-year-old said she had learnt plenty during her time with the program, both on and off the court.

“My whole netball game has improved but I’ve also completely grown as a person,” she said.

“I’ve gone from being the youngest in the program when I first started to being the oldest now and I’ve developed leadership skills as well just from helping the young kids through.”

SERAS executive director Garry Lane had some special praise for the commitment shown by Clements during her time with SERAS.

“Throughout her time on scholarship with the academy Jenna has demonstrated the attitude needed to succeed at the top level and she has made steady improvement in her netball skills,” Lane said.

The SERAS netball program is run in partnership with Netball NSW. As a result, SERAS enters a team in the Clubs NSW Academy Games each year as well as sending a team to the NIB Games in Maitland during the July school holidays.

Clements said she was very grateful for the experiences that her SERAS scholarship had given her.

“I’ve made a lot of friendships and had some really good experiences,” she said.

“Just being able to travel to all the training camps and see new places and use facilities we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to has been great.”

Unfortunately for Clements her promising netball career has been put on hold because of a knee injury that required surgery recently.

However, Clements is remaining upbeat and is already looking forward to getting back on court.

“I had the operation two weeks ago so at the moment I’m just focusing on recovery and rehab so I can get fit and start playing netball again,” she said.

“But in the meantime I’ve got to finish my HSC and then I’ve got schoolies to look forward to after that.”