Multi-skilled Orange athlete Lara Hooper is the first female player from Western Region to earn NSW Primary School Sports Association (PSSA) basketball representation since the 1990s.

Western Region sports officials confirmed the Year Six Calare Public School student is the first female player from Western to represent this state's PSSA girls basketball side for more than 30 years.

Lara, 12, is a humble and respectful human that has achieved excellence in a variety of sports.

Her basketball journey started playing local league in Orange as an 8-year-old.

For the past three years, she has represented Orange in Western Junior League and is currently an Eagles under-14s representative.

Lara was part of the Western Region PSSA side that attended the NSW Primary School Sports Association (PSSA) championships at Sutherland Basketball Centre, Sydney, from June 17 to June 19.

Western finished fifth in Pool A and ninth overall in the 14-team competition.

Lara’s all-round game impressed selectors as she was the only player this side of the Great Dividing Range named in coach Rodney Miskell’s 10-player squad.

She attended a three-day intensive training camp with NSW PSSA at Penrith last week in preparation for the School Sports Australia championships at Brisbane from Saturday, July 26, to Friday, August 1.

In basketball, Lara has a key mentor in Paul Masters, her coach at under-14 level in Orange.

Lara is skilled with the ball, and across 53 matches for Orange in the Western Junior League has scored 668 points (12.6 points per game), but her ability and tenacity in defence helps her stand out.

Box jumping and sprint training under Jeremy Wallace (JLW Performance) transfers across to the basketball court with her speed, agility, and vertical jump.

Lara has been chosen in Basketball NSW’s Talented Athlete Program (TAP) for under-13s girls across regional NSW, where 25 players receive specialised coaching at Narrabeen in August.

TAP is a dedicated initiative in junior basketball development and a part of Basketball NSW’s high-performance pathway.

Long-term goals for Lara are to compete at the Olympics, or play basketball at the WNBL or WNBA level.

“Resilient, tough, but very respectful of her opponents,” father Mark Hooper said of Lara. “She is a student of any sport… anyone that can teach her the techniques or finer skills of any game, she is a wonderful student … she laps all the new knowledge up.”

The goal of the Olympics is because Lara is no stranger to elite sport outside of basketball.

In 2023, she represented NSW in a ‘combination’ event at the School Sport Australia (SSA) Track and Field Championships at Launceston, Tasmania, finishing second overall in the 10-years event. She was also a part of a gold medal-winning NSW medley relay team.

Last year, competing in the 11 years category, at the NSW PSSA titles, Lara won a gold medal in long jump with a leap of 4.64m.

At the 2024 SSA titles, also in Sydney, she won bronze in the long jump (4.58m).

Lara finished seventh in the combination tetrathlon event (1083 points).

She also just attended the NSW PSSA Cross Country titles at Horsley Park yesterday (Wednesday, July 23) and is also a Western Region PSSA soccer and softball representative.

Lara is also a good swimmer, representing Orange district, started little athletics aged nine, and is a member of the Orange club.

She will also attend the LEAP (Little Athletics Emerging Athlete Program). Lara was selected to be part of the program based on her athletics results at state and national levels.