By MARK RAYNER

LAST year's push for Bathurst to enter teams in the Basketball NSW Youth League competitions has been rewarded with both the men's and women's sides now sitting just one win away from a grand final berth.

Both teams will play the finals at 9am tomorrow in Terrigal to earn the right to play in this year's grand finals.

The division two Youth League men will take on Newcastle Hunters and division one Youth League women are set to clash with the Sydney Comets.

It is justification for those who believed that Bathurst's Youth League involvement would benefit the younger members of the club more than having them take on older, more experienced rivals in the open-age State League competitions.

Men's Youth League captain Blake Edwards and women's Youth League senior player Teagan Burke both gave their respective competitions a positive review ? given they had previously played in State League they certainly know what they are talking about.

Edwards said he was pleased with the Goldminers' performance in their first year in the competition and felt that players would benefit from playing against others their age.

"Youth League is a quicker competition and everyone is the same age, so it's more even," Edwards said.

Goldminers coach Amanda Cheers said Edwards had worked hard to ensure young men could have a team in the Youth League rather than the old State League tournament.

"Blake was the one who got in and pushed to have the Youth League team, he attended all the meetings and approached me to see if I would coach it," Cheers said.

"Since then he has been in the role as captain of the side and an integral part of the team."

Burke also said that speed was the major difference between the two competitions.

"In the Youth League you are playing a lot of younger girls whereas the State League had a lot of women around 30 and because of that the speed is just quicker," Burke said.

"There were a lot of girls who wouldn't play in the State League because of the age difference, but with everyone around the same age [in Youth League] it is a lot better.

"Within our pool there is a difference in quality between the top six teams and the bottom six teams, but between those top six sides the competition is very tight."