Two Parkes Shire athletes, Ellie Parker and Grace Dunford have been acknowledged at this year's Western Region Academy of Sport (WRAS) awards night.

Peak Hill's Ellie and Parkes' Grace have both invested their time into their chosen sports, Ellie, hockey and Grace, netball.

Ellie was awarded Hockey Squad Athlete of the Year.

This award is presented to the highest achiever in their sport, out of both the girls and boys squads.

"I didn't expect to win this award, it could have gone to any of the girls or boys in the squad," Ellie said.

"I was honoured, and felt privileged to go up and accept that award, it was very lovely."

Grace was awarded the Strength and Conditioning Award for the most dedicated or improved athlete in strength and conditioning sessions.

"It's an honour (to be awarded), there are lots of athletes out there deserving of this recognition," Grace said.

Sixteen year old Ellie has been playing hockey since the age of six and is a valuable player in her local womens A grade team, Marcellars and her Women's Premier League Side, Orange United.

"I like playing hockey because of the people I play with and it's just fun," Ellie said.

Ellie finds playing in the women's premier league competition beneficial to improving her hockey skills.

"Premier League is on a different level, it's more intense compared to our local competitions and I gain some valuable experience. It's a harder game, it makes you rely on your teammates more, it's different playing styles and it's really fun," she said.

Grace has been playing netball since she was seven years old and has since fallen in love with the sport.

"I love being able to challenge myself on the court with different opponents and being surrounded with a great group of girls," Grace said.

The talented netballer has been representing Parkes since she was 10 playing in the Under 11's Development Team and this year competed in the Regional Carnival in the opens division.

"Parkes went considerably well this year, winning some games at our regional carnival. It was tough competition as we were a very young side competing in the opens division. We were fortunate to have some more experienced players mentoring us."

Grace is also a valuable asset on the Red Bend Catholic College team where they competed at the Marist Carnival in Sydney winning numerous games and also took out third place in the local carnival in Orange.

Ellie has been a part of the WRAS hockey squad for two years now.

"WRAS provides a supportive and encouraging environment for players to try their best and allows them to push themselves to be better. I absolutely recommend WRAS to other athletes," Ellie said.

"WRAS is all about fitness, respect and positive attitude.

"Coaches encourage you to do your own fitness so when you go back into your normal season you are fit and are ahead of the game.

"They like you to be respectful to coaches, teammates and everyone and to have a good and positive attitude, so your not going to training and saying 'omg it's wet', 'omg it's cold', it's like ok we're here to train 'yes it's hot', 'yes it's cold' but you've just got to do it and it's fun," Ellie said.

Ellie said her favourite part about participating in the WRAS program was the people there and the effort you had to put into sessions.

"The people and coaches are really good, it's not like you fluff around at training, you actually go there and work hard and give your 110%.

"You learn heaps of skills that you can take home and practice and put into your own club," she said.

Grace has also been a part of the WRAS netball team for two years.

"There are lots of things I've enjoyed by participating in the WRAS program, but I have really enjoyed playing with a different group of girls than I normally would and adapting my game to fit in with their styles and by being challenged by different coaching styles," Grace said.

"I definitely recommend WRAS to any young athlete that would like to push themselves just a little bit more and want to learn what it takes to be an athlete in their sport not only on the court but also off the court as well."

Grace was awarded her strength and conditioning award for all of her effort she demonstrates in her weekly strength and condition sessions.

"All athletes involved in WRAS are supposed to attend weekly strength and conditioning sessions at the gym. These sessions focus on strength, stamina and speed training. It's a very individual program tailored to your particular sport and what you need to work on. I was fortunate to have Mandy at Parkes Fitness4 All that would challenge and encourage me each week," Grace said.

Grace didn't expect to be awarded a strength and conditioning award as she said there's a lot of talented athletes throughout the WRAS programs and everyone is very deserving of the amount of effort they put in.

Athletes undergo a selection process to gain entry into their sport within the WRAS program. After athletes are selected the squads get together once to twice a month at regional locations for a four to five hour session.

These sessions focus on refining athletes skills, game strategies, specialised sessions depending on your position in your sport, nutritional talks and educational sessions. Athletes also complete weekly gym sessions at their local gym.

Each sport will then compete in the Academy Games at a three day event against other sport academies. Later in the year Grace will compete with the WRAS netball team one final time at the Academy Challenge in Port Macquarie which is a three day event for netballers.

Ellie has recently played for the state catholic schools team in Newcastle where the team unfortunately lost both of their games but Ellie managed to score an amazing goal for her team.

Coming up in the year, Ellie is off to Canada as part of the Wanderers Tour where she will be playing hockey against international athletes her age. This is an exciting opportunity for the young athlete.

Both of the girls future goals within their sports is to keep enjoying it and having fun while also developing their skills more.