Tahlia (left) is 174cm tall – handy for basketball

Imagine being 15-year-old and signing up to be a professional female basketball player.

That’s exactly what happened to Tahlia Tupaea – the Aussie high schooler that made her debut in the Australian Women’s National Basketball League in 2012. She was the second-youngest debutant in WNBL history.

Now, Tahlia is 16 and plays for the Sydney Uni Flames. She’s also working towards finishing off Year 12 while she travels the world with her basketball team.

Just last year, she was able to score herself a spot on the bronze-medal-winning Australian Gems U19 World Championships team, who travelled to Lithuania in July. She also travelled to France and China with the Gems in 2013. This year, she’s travelled all over Australia – everywhere from Townsville to Bendigo.

The bright young star started playing mixed basketball when she was only six years old. By the time she was eight, she had already been selected for Penrith’s U12’s representative team.

I asked Tahlia to tell us a little bit about what it’s like to be a professional basketball player and a high school student. Here’s what she had to say…

And here are Tahlia’s tips for any kids that are keen to get into professional sport:

1. Keep working hard

2. Listen to your coaches and be open to many different coaching styles

3. Never give up, always have a plan and dreams

4. Be the best that you can possibly be, always look to be better

5. Enjoy everything about the game, even the adversity as it makes you better, smarter and stronger

And in other sport news from the week…

– We officially have ourselves a netball team for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, which kick off on July 24. The 12-player team is as follows: Laura Geitz (captain), Bianca Chatfield (vice), Caitlin Bassett, Tegan Caldwell, Julie Corletto, Kimberlee Green, Renae Hallinan, Sharni Layton, Natalie Medhurst, Kimberley Ravaillion, Madison Robinson and Caitlin Thwaites. Good luck to the girls heading to Glasgow, who are sincerely hoping for a gold. Incidentally, the 23-player Matildas squad for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Vietnam this month was also announced this week. The Asian Cup also doubles as a qualifier for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. Congratulations to all the girls – the full squad list can be found here.

– It was a big week for selecting teams… this week, 12 athletes were announced to be competing in the Australian Gilders team for the IWBF Women’s World Wheelchair Basketball Championship next month. The tournament, which is set to be held in Toronto in Canada, will be played at the end of June and the Gliders are hoping for a medal.

– Aussie cricketer Rene Farrell signed a cricket contract this week, being named as one of 15 of our Southern Stars. Rene, 27, came out of retirement last summer after leaving the sport in 2011.

Have you seen any sports news that you’d like to talk about?