{"id":5987,"date":"2017-05-17T01:13:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T17:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/stepping-elite-sports\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:07:54","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:07:54","slug":"stepping-elite-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/stepping-elite-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping up to elite sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered what it\u2019s like to step out on the oval in front of a crowd of fans? For Curtin student Hayley Miller, it was a moment that changed her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be something I will remember for the rest of my life and tell my kids and grandkids about in the future,\u201d says Miller, who was the Fremantle Dockers\u2019 first draft pick for its inaugural women\u2019s team. \u201cI thought about how lucky I was to have this opportunity and about all those who helped me get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller, a physiotherapy student, is one of four women from Curtin University selected for the Dockers women\u2019s team, who played in the popular new AFLW competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level at which they played was amazing,\u201d says Curtin Elite Athlete Coordinator Tarryn Dickerson, whose passion for the women\u2019s game is clearly visible. \u201cI stood trackside and watched that first game and they were just hard at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an elite-athlete-friendly university<\/a>, Curtin supports more than 150 athletes who are pursuing some level of study, including Olympians, developing and emerging athletes, and high-level coaches and officials.<\/p>\n

The students receive assistance with course applications, and managing conflicts with training, classes and exams, with Dickerson central to negotiating flexibility around the athletes\u2019 studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to get allowances, and defer exams and assessments when I have been away on a sporting trip,\u201d says Miller, who, along with the other women in her team has also had support with adjusting to an elite athlete environment and the subsequent media attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got into the thick of their competition just as uni was kicking off, so we\u2019ve been making sure they have got that balance right, and have support systems in place to help them,\u201d says Dickerson, who is also the Player Development Manager for the AFLW Dockers team. \u201cThey have had to really step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickerson has regular one-on-one meetings with every athlete on the program to make sure they have a study plan that suits their needs, whether they are playing, training, tapering for a competition or building up for one.<\/p>\n

Exam timetables frequently clash with competition meets, with some athletes opting to take their exams while they are competing in other parts of Australia or overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can defer the exam or we can have them sit their exam under our special consideration policy, wherever it is they are going,\u201d says Dickerson. \u201cIn the last exam period back in November we facilitated lots of support for athletes in these circumstances with around 20 exams being sat in cities all around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Elite Athlete Program is supported through Curtin\u2019s partnerships with many sporting bodies, including Hockey Australia and the Fremantle Football Club, with the latter giving students access to the club\u2019s facilities in Cockburn and the Fremantle Dockers AFLW team.<\/p>\n

The Fremantle Football Club AFLW\/ Curtin partnership<\/a> also offers work-integrated learning opportunities in social media, public relations, physiotherapy, exercise science and occupational therapy for other Curtin students.<\/p>\n

Dickerson is hoping to make further improvements to the program and expand elite athlete scholarships though new philanthropic opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur athletes are so grateful for the support Curtin provides, so that they can continue to compete at the highest level but also invest in their future,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about developing the person as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year the value of the program hit home when Dickerson proudly watched several Curtin athletes compete at the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I watched our athletes perform at the Rio Olympics and be part of the Australian team, it brought tears to my eyes,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can\u2019t put anything on that, that\u2019s really special. And you know that in some way, the support that Curtin provided to them at some point in time helped them to get there. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered what it\u2019s like to step out on the oval in front of a crowd of fans? For Curtin student and Fremantle Dockers’ first draft pick Hayley Miller, it was a life-changing moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":5988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-5987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":{"title":"Daniel Jauk","url":"#","target":""},"media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Hayley-Miller.png","author_meta":{"first_name":"Anita","last_name":"Shore","display_name":"Anita Shore"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 12:59:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5987"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=5987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}