Ashleigh Barty and Daria Gavrilova have taken time out from their preparations for the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group II first round, to meet with nineteen students from Lyneham High School.<\/p>\n
The student who are part of the school\u2019s Sporting Excellence at Lyneham (SEAL) program, participated in an on court session from the new Tennis for Secondary Schools resource, before watching Australia\u2019s top two women complete their training session.<\/p>\n
The girls who are involved in a variety of sports had the opportunity to ask Ash and Dash a number of questions including career highlights, overcoming challenges, and how they got involved in sport.<\/p>\n
The SEAL program provides a pathway for students that excel within their sporting field, providing them an opportunity to train for their sport along with access to wellbeing and education.<\/p>\n
SEAL Wellbeing and Education Coordinator Kate Davoren said the opportunities like these were so valuable for the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo actually get up close and personal and see them in the person and see them practice, but also have the opportunity to ask those questions they wouldn\u2019t normally have the chance to ask is so important.\u00a0 To see that they [Barty & Gavrilova] are just normal people and that it could be these girls one day.<\/p>\n
The day was a huge success with the girls thrilled with being provided the opportunity and inspiring the school to further grow tennis within the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have love it.\u00a0 They were brimming with excitement on the way here.\u00a0 It\u2019s not often that something like this comes along.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already do a bit of tennis at Lyneham, but it\u2019s definably inspired me and the girls to get it up and running even more,\u201d Davoren added.<\/p>\n
Camila Felix-Vonarx is one of the students involved in the tennis program and was inspired by the chat with the players, highlighting that it would be amazing to play Fed Cup for Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be really cool to play there.\u00a0 They said it was one of the best experiences they had in their career.\u201d<\/p>\n