Ava Chitty: Young Softball player, on her way to becoming one of Australia's best.

How has sport impacted Ava Chitty's life?

Ava Chitty is a young softball player competing in one of Sydney's Rep teams: North Shore District Softball Association. Ava grew up in a Christian household with her two siblings on the northern beaches. She first went to school at St Ives Primary until year two, then she attended Covenant Christian School until the end of 2019. She has recently moved to Barker College as it has many more sporting opportunities, and a more competitive environment.

Ava's cousin was the one who first got her into softball. They tried out for a tee-ball team together when they were younger. Her cousin didn't enjoy it but Ava loved it and continued playing. She was later asked in 2012 to play in a rep team and she's been competing ever since. Since then she has been in many rep teams and is about to get three colours at her school. These colours represent the achievements she has worked for. She is the only person in her year who is getting three, which for her age is a huge accomplishment.

The strongest influences in her life are her coach, Kerry Morgan, who coached her first team and saw her potential. Her other influences are Alan Moore, her batting coach, and Tahli Moore, a famous Australian player who Ava has always looked up to.

Juggling school and sport can be really difficult, especially when you have softball games on Sunday, but assignments due on Monday. Ava said that she can find it very stressful sometimes and can sometimes need help if she has tournaments when assignments are due soon. When playing a sport, staying healthy can be difficult as playing sport and doing school work can take up a lot of time. Ava decides to go gluten-free, dairy-free and tries to stay off refined sugars which can be difficult but it has a better end result to keep her fit. (Don't try this without the permission of your health care practitioner)

Ava expects in her future she will be playing for an Australian team and studying sports nutrition, sport psychology or sports social media. For Ava to play well when softball goes back, she has recently started going for runs to stay healthy and fit. One of Ava's favourite quotes is "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky. This is a great quote we can all live by, whichever field we decide to go in!