{"id":41017,"date":"2019-01-30T08:35:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T22:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=41017"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:45:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:45:04","slug":"playing-for-western-australia-a-dream-come-true-for-mikayla-bowen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2019\/01\/30\/playing-for-western-australia-a-dream-come-true-for-mikayla-bowen\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing for Western Australia a \u201cdream come true\u201d for Mikayla Bowen"},"content":{"rendered":"

WESTERN Australia (WA) Under-18 representative, <\/span>Mikayla Bowen <\/b>always wanted to be an elite athlete. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now in her second year of the state program, Bowen is well on her way to achieving her dream, playing in an elite environment against some of the best female footballers in the country. She is ecstatic to be doing this in WA colours. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I did start (playing footy), even prior to that, I\u2019ve always watched football in a men\u2019s competition knowing that at my age the women\u2019s competition wasn\u2019t even around,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cHaving it around now and being a part of an elite level is just insane and it\u2019s definitely a dream come true for me and for all the rest of the team as well. \u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re all looking forward to the draft. \u201cIt\u2019s a pathway that\u2019s been set down for us that we can pursue. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bowen is only in her third year of football and has already represented her state twice, and made the All Australian squad of 48 after a stellar AFL Women\u2019s Under-18 Championships this year. The 17 year-old was originally inspired by her brother to take up the sport, and is now succeeding in following his footsteps. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving my brother as one of my biggest inspirations, he\u2019s played football ever since he was a little tacker, so I\u2019ve been going down to his game every Sunday and watching him play and develop as a player,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cWhere he is now really inspired me to head down to Bassendean three years ago now and take out the first tryouts in that. \u201cEver since then, we\u2019ve just kept stepping up.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Bowen originally joined Swan Districts in Bassendean with state teammates, <\/span>Mikayla <\/b>and <\/span>Brianna Hyde, <\/b>and has thrived on the spectacular football community at the club. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt Swan Districts, the club to me is like a family,\u201d the 17 year-old said. \u201cI went down there on the first day, I was treated like literally they were all my sisters, the coaches were all my family. \u201cIt\u2019s such a welcoming environment and I think that no matter how skilled you are or how passionate you are or how long you\u2019ve been playing the game, everybody just loves each other. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good environment to be around.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She admits that the travel was initially difficult but now says it is all worth it, after seeing big progress being made in her team. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did live in Darlington originally which is about half an hour away and not having my license, my mum is busy running her own business and I do have a younger sister as well so I wasn\u2019t personally able to get around much with her so I was more reliant on public transport,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cSo training started at 4.30 so I\u2019d finished school at 3, would have to run to the bus stop or to the train station and then catch the train all the way up to Bassendean station. \u201cIt was a bit of a trek for but it was all worth it really to come and see what we did then to where we are now, every part of it was worth it, it wasn\u2019t really a hassle in the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bowen plays in teams that are constantly improving, and would like to continue that trend individually, highlighting some skills that she would like to work on. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just admire how well the girls can read the play,\u201d the WA representative said. \u201cThat\u2019s definitely one of my key points to work on, is knowing where the ball is going to go, where i need to position myself. \u201cI\u2019ve looked up to a couple of girls which I\u2019m now playing against which is really interesting because being on the field with them, they kind of drag you towards the ball and you learn where you need to be when the ball\u2019s there, where you need to be for your teammates and it\u2019s really just learning and living the life of an elite athlete so it\u2019s definitely a dream come true for me.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Away from football, Bowen hopes to put her hands-on attitude into practice, admitting that a trade would be her preferred choice of career. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was originally planning to go to uni and then footy did pick up for me so university didn\u2019t seem to interest me as much when my passion for football came but I don\u2019t take that as a negative, I really personally love hands-on stuff,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d probably die if I was sitting at a desk all day, that\u2019s kind of why I play football.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WESTERN Australia (WA) Under-18 representative, Mikayla Bowen always wanted to be an elite athlete. Now in her second year of the state program, Bowen is well on her way to achieving her dream, playing in an elite environment against some of the best female footballers in the country. She is ecstatic to be doing this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":44549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,8,11609,3131,137],"tags":[5351,7234,4843,7233,5375,4844,1754,1921,11630],"class_list":["post-41017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-news","category-swan-districts","category-western-australia","category-womens","tag-afl-womens-under-18-championships","tag-bassendean","tag-brianna-hyde","tag-darlington","tag-mikayla-bowen","tag-mikayla-hyde","tag-swan-districts","tag-western-australia","tag-western-australia-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}