Sophie Van De Heuvel (born 10 December 2000) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er playing for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW). A

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er as well as a footballer, she competed in both sports at the national level in her junior career. Van De Heuvel was the second selection in the

2018 AFL Women's draft The 2018 AFL Women's (AFLW) draft consisted of the various periods when the ten clubs in the Australian rules football women's competition could recruit players prior to the competition's 2019 season. As in the previous season, all player con ...

and debuted in the opening round of the

2019 AFL Women's season The 2019 AFL Women's season was the third season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured ten clubs and ran from 2 February to 31 March, com ...

Early life

Van De Heuvel grew up in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

and attended Loreto College. She came from a sporting family: her father Mark Van De Heuvel played football for

Sebastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important Port of Sevastopol, por ...

and

for Golden Point, her mother Melinda Brown played

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

and

indoor cricket Indoor cricket is a variant of and shares many basic concepts with cricket. The game is most often played between two teams each consisting of six or eight players.

, and her brother played football and cricket. Van De Heuvel primarily focussed on football and cricket, but also played netball early in her junior career. She cited dual-sport athlete

Jess Duffin Jessica Evelyn Duffin (; born 27 June 1989) is an Australian sportswoman. In cricket, she has made 117 international appearances and won four world championships as a member of the Australia women's national cricket team, Australian women's te ...

as a role model she planned to emulate.

Cricket

In her junior career, Van De Heuvel was a right-arm

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

, described as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

. Van De Heuvel played junior cricket for Golden Point. She attended the Under-15 Girls National Championships in 2015 and was named the third-best player of the series. In 2016, Van De Heuvel began to play for Plenty Valley Cricket Club in Victoria Premier Cricket and won the competition's best first-year player award. The same year, she played for the

Cricket Australia Cricket Australia (CA) is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Cricket'. It is incorporated as an Australian Public Company ...

XI in the National Under 18 Championships, when she was aged 15. In the second match, Van De Heuvel scored a

half century This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cr ...

. Ahead of the 2018 AFLW draft, she played for Essendon Maribyrnong Park Ladies Club and hoped to continue her cricket in the

Women's Big Bash League The Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) also known as Weber WBBL for sponsorship reasons, is the Australian professional Women's Twenty20 Cricket league. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 season ...

. She played for Victoria Country at the 2019 National Under 18 Championships and suffered a minor

hamstring injury Straining of the hamstring, also known as a pulled hamstring, is defined as an excessive stretch or tear of muscle fibers and related tissues. Hamstring injuries are common in athletes participating in many sports. Track and field athletes are p ...

Football

Van De Heuvel played football through the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian football to children aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective program. It has incre ...

program and began her junior career with

Ballarat Football Club The Ballarat Football Netball Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football and netball club. The football squad currently competes in the Ballarat Football League in the Ballarat region of Victoria, Australia. Ballarat has won more ...

. She focussed on netball until she played in the under-14 boys football competition. Van De Heuvel progressed to the TAC Cup Girls, where she played for the

Greater Western Victoria Rebels The Greater Western Victoria Rebels is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Talent League, the statewide under-18s competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They recruit players from the Ballarat, Wimmera and Sou ...

, tying for their

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

with Ella Bibby in 2017. She represented Vic Country at the

2018 AFL Women's Under 18 Championships The 2018 NAB AFL Women's Under-18 Championships was played between May and July 2018, with six teams competing in the main 'Series 2' round robin tournament and with a further four playing in a two-match on-on-one exhibition as the competition's ...

and was named in the All-Australian side. Van De Heuvel was also named in the TAC Cup Girls team of the year and played five

VFL Women's VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victori ...

matches for

Williamstown Football Club The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed the Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Williamstown, Victoria, Williamstown. The club currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and VFL Wome ...

. At the AFLW draft combine, she won the left-side running vertical jump with a leap of 70 centimetres. Ahead of the 2018 AFLW draft, Van De Heuvel was predicted to be taken with one of Geelong's first selections.

AFLW career

Van De Heuvel was drafted by

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

with the second selection in the

. She received the guernsey number 27, a tribute to her father's footballing career with Sebastopol wearing 27. Van De Heuvel made her debut in the opening round of the

against . In May 2022, Van De Heuvel joined expansion club

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington United Kin ...

Personal life

Van De Heuvel was in a relationship with Australian influencer Sophie Cachia in 2023.

Statistics

:''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2019 season.'' , - style="background:#EAEAEA" , scope="row" text-align:center ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , 27 , , 7 , , 1 , , 0 , , 25 , , 18 , , 43 , , 7 , , 14 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 3.6 , , 2.6 , , 6.1 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3 , Career ! 7 ! 1 ! 0 ! 25 ! 18 ! 43 ! 7 ! 14 ! 0.1 ! 0.0 ! 3.6 ! 2.6 ! 6.1 ! 1.0 ! 2.0 ! 0

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van De Heuvel, Sophie 2000 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Ballarat People educated at Loreto College, Victoria Williamstown Football Club players Geelong Football Club (AFLW) players Greater Western Victoria Rebels players (Talent League Girls) Australian LGBTQ sportswomen