Student ready to represent North Qld

AFTER looking up to her older sisters representing North Queensland in school sport, Mia Martin is now excited to have her second opportunity to follow in their footsteps.

Mia, 11, has been selected to pull on the dark blue North Queensland shirt to represent the region in softball.

She was happy to be selected after watching with envy as her sisters were selected to play in Northern Region School Sport, including sister Emma who is part of the rugby league and softball squads this year.

Mia was a shadow player for the squad when she was 10 and when a player dropped out, she was able to step in.

This year she was given her own place on the team.

“I was proud of myself because I didn’t think I’d get to this high a level,” Mia said.

“My mum was confident in me and she said I was doing a really good job.”

Mia has been selected as the catcher, a role that requires her to stop the ball if it gets past the batter and give directions to her teammates.

“If they’re running from first base to second, I can throw fast enough and yell out to players so they know where to throw the ball,” she said.

Mia is also a keen netball and rugby player.

The Year 6 student at Bowen State School is also Sinclair house captain and started playing softball the year before last.

Mia said she was selected after attending trials in Townsville and her favourite part of the sport was the people she played alongside.

“It’s really fun because we have lots of friends who do it as well,” she said.

She has ambitions to play for Queensland one day, but on a local level, she would like to see more opportunities to play softball in Bowen as there is no team she can play with.

She will head to Redcliffe in October to play in the Queensland School Sport State Championships.