By Ewen McRae
Sophie Van De Heuvel has never let a bit of travel get in the way of following her sporting dreams.
The Ballarat 17-year-old, who played VFLW football for Williamstown this season will ply her trade on the big stage in 2019, after she was snapped up by Geelong with the second overall pick in the AFLW draft last week.
Van De Heuvel enjoyed a breakout first season with Williamstown in the VFL this year, after several years of strong performances for the Greater Western Victoria Rebels in the TAC Cup and a stellar National Championships for the Vic Country team this year.
Speaking on SEN radio, Van De Heuvel said she was excited to be joining Geelong for their first season in the AFLW competition.
“It’s an absolute honour to be drafted to Geelong,” Van De Heuvel said.
“I found out two days before the draft that I would be taken at pick two, so it’s all been very exciting since then.
“I think mum had a few tears when I went up to get my jumper, and my family have been so supportive and my biggest role models so I can’t thank them enough.”
A midfielder and half-forward, Van De Heuvel has lined up an impressive array of onfield achievements this year, including AFLW under-18 All Australian, TAC Cup Team of the Year, and under-18 State of Origin representative.
She also performed well at the draft combine, setting the best running vertical jump score, as well as the second fastest 20-metre sprint.
This all came as she juggles year 12, as well as a promising cricket career which has included being named best first year player in Victoria Premier Cricket playing with Plenty Valley.
She only began playing football three years ago and plans to play in the Women’s Big Bash League this summer with Geelong’s permission, while still training with them ahead of the AFLW season in February 2019.
“I started footy a little bit late because of cricket, so it was straight from youth girls to the TAC Cup for me, and then this year in the VFL which was really good for me,” Van De Heuvel said.
“Geelong’s been pretty flexible and really supportive in letting me juggle both sports so fingers crossed it all goes to plan.
“It’s been pretty difficult to juggle it all, with cricket training twice a week, and footy training twice a week, and then school, but I’ve had great support from family and friends.
“I hope I don’t have to choose one sport over the other, but I guess in the future it might end up that way so we’ll see how we go.”
While it’s still early days after her drafting, Van De Heuvel said she was looking forward to joining her new teammates and getting into the hard work ahead of the season.
“I just want to make myself a better person, and it will be a great experience to be around elite athletes at Geelong,” she said.
“It will be an amazing environment to be there so I just want to learn as much as I can from the other players and see how I go.”
