By RUSSELL BENNETT
IN a sporting sense, 2013 could well have been dubbed the ‘Year of Amy’ for young Haileybury student Amy Lawton.
And the recent Victorian School Sport Awards at the MCG have validated that sentiment even further.
At just 12 years old and in her first year in high school after graduating from Beaconsfield Upper Primary School, Lawton was recently bestowed a Sporting Blue award at a special function in the MCG’s hallowed members dining room.
The young hockey star received the honour from Casey TigerSharks Olympian Matson Lawson and star middle-distance runner Alex Rowe as recognition of her stunning sporting achievements throughout 2013.
During her time at Beaconsfield Upper, Lawton served as school captain, house captain and represented her school in swimming, cross-country, athletics, hockey, basketball, chess and debating.
A brilliant sporting all-rounder, she excels at hockey and was selected as a member of the 2013 12-and-under School Sport Victoria (SSV) girls hockey team that won silver at the national championships, and the Hockey Victoria under-13 girls’ state team.
She also captained her school hockey 7s team to the 2013 state championships, and was part of the FFV under-13 soccer side which toured Coffs Harbour last year.
Lawton was the youngest player in both the Hockey Victoria and FFV sides and admits “it’s been quite tricky” managing all her commitments.
Training for the FFV team she’s in has been a three-day-a-week commitment, for example, and that’s not even the sport she won the Sporting Blue for.
It’s also compulsory for her to participate in school sport at Haileybury in Berwick.
She insists she wasn’t nervous when she stepped up to receive her award at the MCG – she’d had time to let it sink in as she applauded the other winners before her.
Looking forward, Lawton is in the training squad to make the SSV under-13 girls state team and also had the under-12 state school hockey trials this week with another prodigiously talented Lawton – her little sister Josie.
