Sophie Fawns had just turned 18 when her mother died. The rising netball star moved from Wagga Wagga to join the NSW Swifts and found support from a ‘second family away from home’, writes LINDA PEARCE.
As a bolter from the bush playing with freedom and a smile on her NSW Swifts debut last season, Sophie Fawns radiated joy on the netball court. As a second-year player in a new role, the pure enjoyment of being there remains.
“Definitely, 100 per cent. I feel like without any joy, what’s the point of playing the game?’’ says the 19-year-old shooter, whose personal story contains the trauma of her mother Maureen’s death from ovarian cancer 18 months ago.
“My debut, I was just so ecstatic to be on court, so excited to play alongside all these girls I’ve looked up to for a really long time, and even if I tried I literally could not wipe the smile off my face.
“We lost that game and it didn’t even feel like it – well, for me anyway!’’
Arriving in Sydney from her home town of Wagga Wagga seven weeks after Maureen’s death, the overriding emotion in what Fawns agrees was a “whirlwind” introduction to Super Netball – as a temporary and eventually permanent replacement for the injured Sam Wallace – was the thrill of her arrival, while dealing with the grief of what had just occurred.
“I couldn’t believe I was a Swift, everything was just go, go, go, and I guess I didn’t really have time to reflect at the time how amazing it actually was to be able to be a part of that last year. Honestly, I was just so stoked to be there, and obviously missing out on finals by one (goal) was heartbreaking.
“Then this year was so much more focused, especially with having that pre-season behind me now, I’ve got that in the bank, and going out there with more confidence.
“There’s always going to be areas of my game that I can improve, I’m just sort of starting out, so I’ve got lots of years to work on them. Last year was just playing with freedom … whereas this year’s a lot more strategic.’’
If Helen Housby — with whom the team jokes that Fawns is joined at the hip — is the Swifts’ queen of the two-pointer, then the teenager is her heir(ess) apparent; increasingly used as an impact player during the Power Five in place of veteran recruit Romelda Aiken-George, and comfortable to have a ping from anywhere.
“Sometimes the Super Shot line with the game now you’re told not really to shoot it unless it’s worth two points, but when I drop back to Premier League or whatever, it’s always just as long as I can see the post you can shoot it,’’ says the 185-centimetre Fawns, who took up netball at the age of 10.
“Growing up, because I was one of the taller girls, you sort of get pigeonholed into goal shooter, so it was always under the post. But I remember my mum would always take me out and make sure I was practising my long bombs, because she would always say, ‘One day you’re going to have to shoot from wherever’.’’
Mum, of course, was right.
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On special occasions such as birthdays, the anniversary of her passing in November 2021, Mother’s Day, or just when she has some free time, Fawns will often head to Wollongong’s Nan Tien Temple, the largest in the southern hemisphere.
Malaysian-born Maureen and her converted-Catholic husband Greg raised their four daughters in the Buddhist faith, and Maureen’s ashes are centrally located for a family spread out across their native Wagga, Canberra, and now Sydney.
“We just thought the temple’s a really nice place that’s close to all of us, that we can go visit her, and she’s looked after and prayed over every day which just brings a lot of peace to the mind,’’ says Fawns, who is sometimes joined by her supportive Swifts teammates for the drive south.
“I know how much mum loved the Swifts, because I came in for pre-season when she was still with us, she adored them so much and they all really loved her, so it’s really special to me that they all want to come and learn about my culture and come see my mum and see where she is now.’’
Maureen’s cancer was discovered in 2019. After eight rounds of chemotherapy and subsequent participation in a clinical trial, a scan before a new treatment was due to start in August, 2021, revealed she probably had only months to live.
Her daughters were not told, though, with third-eldest Sophie — a NSW junior representative and soon-to-be Swifts training partner whom Maureen would drive on the 10-hour round trip to Sydney most weekends for almost three years — in Year 12.
“When she was first diagnosed was when I had first made my state team and mum was always so positive, she was always, ‘I never want you to think negatively about this, we’re gonna be OK, I’m gonna be there to watch you’. All that kind of stuff,’’ Fawns recalls.
“It just never crossed her mind that the treatment wouldn’t work, or anything like that and she was always so positive … she didn’t want us to worry and she always put us first.’’
Fawns had just turned 18 when Maureen died, remaining home in Wagga for the traditional seven-week mourning period to achieve future enlightenment in the Buddhist faith, before moving to Sydney for the tail end of the Swifts’ pre-season and to prepare to start a Science degree at UNSW.
“I moved up in January cos I knew that that’s what she would want me to do. She would hate me to give up netball, she would hate me to give up all of this just to sit around and I guess grieve her. She wouldn’t want that.
“Making my debut (against the Vixens in round two, 2022), you look up in the crowd and you see your whole family but you don’t see mum, someone who’s been a massive part of my netball journey is really hard.
“I think especially on those days that training’s extra hard or you’re just feeling a bit down, sometimes the only person you do want to talk to is the person who’s been with you by your side every day, in that aspect.
“But the support of the Swifts has been absolutely amazing. I really couldn’t ask for a better bunch of girls, and a better second family away from home.’’
Earlier this year, she filled Maddy Proud’s place in the house now shared with Sarah Klau, Maddy Turner and Allie Smith, and also admires inspiring Giants’ midcourter Amy Parmenter, who started The Tie Dye Project to raise money for sarcoma-related projects after her mum, Gilly, died of mesothelioma in 2013.
Fawns is majoring in neuroscience, and plans to work in the female health and education area when she graduates, to, in part, raise awareness around the so -called “silent killer” that is ovarian cancer.
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Australian netball’s matriarch, Joyce Brown, sat right behind the goals at John Cain Arena in round 11, when Fawns nailed seven of her 10 two-point attempts to help propel the second-placed Swifts to a 70-62 victory over the Melbourne Vixens.
Brown regards Fawns’ on-court cameos – she has played a total of 105 minutes for 59 points heading into round 12, compared with 160 goals from 13 games last season – as symbolic of the lack of opportunities for emerging Australian shooters, with imports part-populating the goal circle in all but the two Queensland teams and filling both starting slots at the Swifts.
“Fawns is a beautiful player. Her moves are very clean, she sees the spaces and reads the game well and she’s got a beautiful pair of hands. I’m taken with her,’’ says Brown, the former coaching doyenne.
“She actually enjoys playing, and that shows, and it’s not over the top, it’s a genuine enjoyment, and she has a beautiful shooting action. And that’s a lot for me to say, because I’m usually pretty critical, as you know!
“So why can’t she get a foot on the court? Because there’s an international in the way. If you look at the shooting circles there’s not many places left for Australians, and so then the next move is to go to England and earn a reasonable wage and see Europe.’’
Fawns intends to stay put but admits that she has had to adjust to receiving less minutes since Aiken-George, who was brought in to cover for Wallace’s extended ACL rehabilitation, has been preferred at Housby’s starting partner.
“I had a lot of honest conversations with the coaches before (the season) and they had said to me, ‘You’re still part of the team, this isn’t a you’re-sitting-on-the-bench kind of thing, we still want you really involved, etc, etc’. Because obviously I am the signed player, and I think it was so good to have those conversations.
“Especially with last year I got quite a bit of court time, so this year to sit back is a bit different, but learning off Helen and Romelda is amazing. They’re so smart and so talented and they’ve got years of experience, and they do such a great job.
“There’s two or three games where I didn’t get on at all, and sometimes those are hard because you always think, ‘If you gave me the chance, I can do it’ kinda thing.
“But you put the team first and what’s best for the team and at the end of the day we won those games, and I think everyone played really well. I’m so young that my job is to learn and that’s exactly what I’m doing.’’
Proud, the Swifts co-captain, rates highly not just Fawns’ accuracy and ability to shoot from long range but willingness to play her role, and tips a brilliant future for the aspiring Diamond and former Australian junior squad member.
“It’s scary, I think. Just to see the growth. When a lot of girls and players were in Institute programs or Academy environments, or training partners, she was in Wagga because obviously the pandemic was going on, so she really missed out on a few years of that real formative development,’’ says Proud.
“We’ve seen how far she’s been able to come in just one proper pre-season, and at 19 years old after 20 or 30 games, imagine after five pre-seasons just how scary she’s going to be. I think she’s got so much potential and she’s really just taking every opportunity she gets. The sky’s the limit for her.’’
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Did you know that butterflies experience taste through their feet? That bananas are technically berries?
Fawns is known for her fun facts, as part science-nerd, and part memory-like-an-elephant-type who retains and shares quirky tidbits of knowledge. Like the human body lacking hydro-receptors. Hmmm. Fascinating.
The youngest Swift is something of a little sister to the group in which new mum Aiken-George is the senior citizen at age 34, the team having listened in with amusement during a recent post-match dinner as Fawns traded nuggets of knowledge with Aiken-George’s seven-year-old stepson.
“Sophie’s hilarious,’’ says Proud. “Moving in with a few of the other girls has really brought her out of her shell and she’s kind of become the comedian of the group. She always has a funny story to tell or something that’s happening in her life, and I just think she’s growing and growing.
“The more comfortable she becomes in the environment, the more she builds confidence on and off the court, and I think that’s transferring into those performances that she’s able to put out there.
“She still just brings so much joy to the game, and whenever any of us are out on the court with her and we see that big smile on her face and just how excited she is to be out there it really trickles through to the whole group.’’
The great shame is that Maureen is not there to see it, but Fawns knows her mother would be proud.
“She would definitely be at every single game that she could, and some games when I don’t play my best she would definitely tell me that, as well,’’ the teenager laughs ahead of Sunday’s sold-out derby against Parmenter’s Giants, where the biggest crowd of her career will be missing one precious member.
“I think she would have given anything to come see me play in the red.’’
