Harris and Rantall will represent Victoria Goldminers and Victoria Bushrangers respectively in the under 18 section, starting on Tuesday.

The duo is aiming to impress state selectors with Vic Country teams for the national championships selected after the tournament.

Harris and Rantall, who played in a Hampden league under 16 football premiership together for South Warrnambool in August, have grown up playing squad basketball for the Seahawks.

"It will be good to be on opposite teams," Harris said of Rantall.

"He can shoot the ball pretty well, he can drive to the basket. (It will be) about containing his footwork.

"His footwork is pretty hard to stop. He is is pretty quick and explosive too."

Rantall said Harris - a shooting guard - would be potent from beyond the arc.

"It's going to be weird going from playing together to playing against each other," he said.

"Hopefully we'll be playing against each other for the gold (medal).

"We'll have to limit his shots. If he gets on, he has the chance of really putting a few points on the board."

It will be Harris' first time at the country cup while Rantall has competed at the annual tournament previously.

Harris, 16, said he was eager to challenge himself at a higher level and be a scoring threat, both from long range and driving to the basket.

"I am looking forward to competing against the other states and countries, with New Zealand being there," he said.

"It will be a good challenge to compete outside of Warrnambool."

Rantall, who made a Vic Country team in 2021, said he was excited to play in Albury again.

"I was lucky enough in (under) 14s to go once and this is obviously the first time they've run this specific tournament again since COVID," he said.

Harris, who praised Warrnambool coach Alex Gynes for his help, gets inspiration from those his own age - particularly abroad in the United States.

"I am into the high school basketball, people around my age, watching them and seeing how they play the game," he said.

Harris, who is about to start year 11 at Emmanuel College, made the Seahawks' Country Basketball League team this summer but hasn't played due to state training clashing with games.

"It was still good to go along and train with men and get a feel for it," he said.

Rantall - a Warrnambool College student - played some Big V minutes last winter as one of Warrnambool Seahawks' youngest players.

He wants to take lessons from those opportunities into the country cup.

"I just want to improve and see where I'm at again, just to get better and play with people I have never played with," Rantall said.

"I have been working on my game off the ball, so positioning on defence, and getting my shot up against taller opponents.

"Big V there's obviously less time, so it's about doing everything I do but making it quicker."

Other Warrnambool representatives invited to the country cup were Matilda Sewell (under 18), who is away in America; Mason Osborne, Eve Covey, Poppy Myers, Shelby O'Sullivan (all under 16), Roy Lucas and Madelyn Clarke (under 14) while Mia Mills (under 18) is an emergency.

Lewis Gommers and Sophie Smith (under 14) and Paddy Sell and Indi O'Connor (under 15) will compete at the Southern Cross Challenge from January 20-23.

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