By RUSSELL BENNETT
CONSIDER 2013 the Year of Amy.
So far this year, Dewhurst’s 11-year-old Amy Lawton has been chosen to represent her state in four different teams – two soccer, and two hockey.
Her allegiances are naturally split down the middle – admitting: “I’m better at hockey but improving at soccer”.
But if her commitments keep clashing, there may soon come a day when she has to choose. Not a bad dilemma to face – which state-level sport she wants to knuckle-down and focus on.
The Upper Beaconsfield Primary School grade six student was a part of the Football Federation Victoria (FFV) under-13 soccer side to tour Coffs Harbour last month. She will travel to Canberra with the under-12 School Sports Victoria (SSV) hockey team before the end of August, and by the end of September she will have visited Brisbane with the under-12 SSV soccer side and Hobart with the under-13 Victorian hockey squad. It’s all incredible to imagine, but must be unbelievable to experience.
She’s the youngest player in both the Hockey Victoria side and the FFV side and has already received tutelage via email from Kookaburras legend Jamie Dwyer. But she missed out on meeting him face to face recently, thanks to one of her soccer commitments.
It’s just all part of the process for this prodigiously talented youngster. But she refuses to leave her studies behind in pursuit of her athletic dreams.
She has a scholarship to attend Haileybury in Berwick next year and needs to maintain her grades.
Her parents Oliver and Julie, for their part, couldn’t be more proud of Amy or her little sister Josie – also a sporting sensation.
“We’re just over the moon,” dad Oliver beamed.
He drives Amy everywhere she needs to go and simply finds a way to continually fund her travels.
He and his wife are experienced squash players. Born in Zimbabwe, they moved to England – where Amy was born, before settling in Australia largely because of the exposure Australian youngsters get to a variety of sporting opportunities.
Amy is disciplined, tough and determined – characteristics that could take her to the top in hockey, soccer or even cross-country running (where she was also top five in the state).
If only there were more hours in her week.
