58 | T HE B A R O SSA M A G
But not even Chelsea dreamed
the club would change its fortunes
so quickly. “I think three years ago that wasn’t
in my nature but that fight has
definitely come out in me.”
The Lightning executed a
remarkable winning streak in
the 2018-19 season and contested
a “nerve-wracking” finals series
in February, coming up just
short against Canberra Capitals. That same competitive streak
showed when Chelsea was selected
in a star-studded ‘Emerging Opals’
team representing Australia at the
World University Games in 2017.
While Chelsea acknowledges her
club’s success has narrowed her
window for court time, she’s taking
every opportunity to learn from
the best.
“We’re one of the top two teams so
every week I’m training against the
best in the competition – I mean,
Nia Coffey could go MVP (most
valuable player).
"Sometimes that’s more important
than getting minutes on the court,”
Chelsea says.
“How you see us play is how we
train. Afterwards we step off the
court and everything’s fine, but
we definitely go after each other.
“I was called up to play in that team
against Japan, Canada and USA.
I’d never had any international
experience whatsoever, so to see
how the team runs and be part of
it was a valuable lesson,” she says.
“We ended up winning so it was
the best first experience you could
ask for.”
While competing on the world
stage is a long way from the Truro
Takers, Chelsea says none of it
would have been possible without
the support of her parents and
sister Renata, who’s done her
fair share of airport runs
before sunrise.
Chelsea herself has made many
sacrifices, juggling an intensive
training regime with tertiary study
in Business and Legal Studies and
part-time work in aged care.
“Especially with the travel and
lifestyle, it’s not easy. Sometimes
a full day is dedicated to travel and
that’s tough, especially on your
body and especially after a long
season,” she says.
“But we have a responsibility, not
just to ourselves, but to the team…
if we don’t eat properly and come
to training prepared we’re letting
ourselves down.”
Having been on the journey with
his young protégé, Lucas is full
of praise for Chelsea, saying she’s
demonstrated that “she just wants
to get better”.
“Three years ago she was very
young, very naïve about elite level
competition, but I saw a lot of
potential in her and she has been
an integral part of our rebuilding
over the past three years,”
Lucas says.
“I can only have five players on
the floor but this experience is
part of her growth and hopefully
in another year she’ll get the
chance to prove herself.”
For Chelsea, every sacrifice has
been worth it, especially the chance
to reward loyal fans.
“Three years ago we were lucky
to fill a part of the stand so the
support we’re seeing is a really big
thing for us – the crowd that came
out for our last home game was
the biggest I’d seen,” Chelsea says.
“That’s what we said we wanted –
for more kids to come out and the
public to come out – and I think
we’ve achieved that.
“It helps that we’ve been successful
and people can see we’ve been
building towards this, but it also
helps that women’s sport is out
there now.
“Now we’re on every radio and
T.V. station because there’s
something to write about.”