By JARROD POTTER
WEEKENDS aren’t for dual-sportswoman Jordanne Dyer to relax, as she’s striving to make a mark in both football and basketball.
Dyer, 16, from Berwick, lives a double-sporting life at the moment as she balances Big V and VJBL basketball as well as South East Juniors football commitments.
Centre/forward in basketball at Casey Cavaliers; ruck/forward in football for Beaconsfield. The tall talent doesn’t have much time off either between training for all her teams plus a match a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Sport is definitely ramping up for Dyer now as she made her Big V senior women’s debut against Sherbrooke earlier this month – taking two points and two rebounds from a short stint on court – before backing it up on Saturday against Pakenham in her second senior game.
It’s a hard roster to break into for more experienced players, let alone a 16-year-old, which speaks volumes of Dyer’s talent on court.
“This year I moved to Casey to play Under 20s and I just got asked one training session to train with the Big V team,” Dyer said. “There are four of us who were training with them and I was injured for a little while, but as soon as I got back I trained a couple of weeks in a row and – they asked me to play so that was pretty exciting.
“It was pretty nerve-wracking at the start, but the team is very encouraging and they get behind the younger players – I sat on the bench the whole first quarter so it was a lot more nerve-wracking, but when I got on and got the goal that eased off a little bit.”
For most people, that would be enough sporting success to hang their hats on but Dyer has her athletic ambitions dialled up higher.
She followed her brother’s girlfriend into the football side of life and hasn’t looked back – featuring in Beaconsfield’s 2015 Youth Girls premiership as well as playing in the SEJ interleague side … in her first year of footy.
“I was playing basketball since I was four – so it’s always been my favourite sport I guess – but from a young age my older brothers played football, my dad was a coach and I’ve been around footy for a long time,” Dyer said. “I decided I’d sign up and play – but balancing two sports has been pretty hard … it’s every night of the week, going from one training to the next.”
Dyer’s unsure if a Beaconsfield senior football debut is on the horizon – but she’s open to the idea of playing wherever her sporting path may take her.
“It’s actually been an amazing experience doing both – I always wanted to play footy from a young age – but you need supportive parents to be able to do it (two sports) and I’ve been really lucky with that,” Dyer said. “My highlight is watching myself grow as a person and a player – taking on captaincy roles and stuff like that.”
The last looming question for Dyer is her biggest to ponder; which sport do you pick going forward?
“I’m going to have to pick one or the other next year,” Dyer said. “I have no clue what I’m going to do yet though.”
But in the meantime, she can reap the benefits of all three of her sides and reap the rewards wherever she may go.
She wanted to thank her parents, basketball coach Darren Hedge and mentor Daequon Montreal, for their support of her sporting ambitions.
