Havana Harris is a professional

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 who was selected by the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

with the second pick in the

2024 AFL Women's draft The 2024 AFL Women's draft was the annual draft that enabled the 18 clubs in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition to recruit players following the 2024 AFL Women's season. It was held on 16 December 2024. It took place during the 2024–25 AFL W ...

Early life

Harris was born on the Gold Coast and attended

Varsity College Varsity College is a primary and secondary school in Varsity Lakes (Queensland, Australia). Infrastructure On 25 July 2001, Stage 1 of the school was officially opened by Hon Peter Beattie (Premier of Queensland). On 13 August 2002, stage 2 ...

throughout her upbringing. Her father, Jonathan, was a professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

er who played in the National Basketball League for the

Gold Coast Rollers Gold Coast Rollers may refer to: * Gold Coast Rollers (NBL), former National Basketball League team *Gold Coast Rollers (NBL1 North) Gold Coast Rollers is a NBL1 North club based in Gold Coast, Queensland. The club fields a team in both the M ...

in the 1990s. Her mother Samantha Hughes was an elite junior netball player who transitioned to marathon running, winning the Gold Coast Marathon in 2000 and the Melbourne Marathon in 2001. Havana began her sports journey in athletics where she was an elite runner and was crowned under-12 national champion in

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

. Harris was invited to play

by her school for the first time at the age of 13 and she would later go on to lead Varsity College to an AFL Queensland State Championship win in 2022. She also played junior football for the Burleigh Bombettes and later switched clubs to play in the top state QAFLW competition for

Bond University Bond University is Australia's first private university, private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, Queensland, Robina on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its opening on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teachi ...

and was voted Best on Ground in their 2023 QAFLW Grand Final victory. She was represented Queensland mutltiple times throughout her junior football career and was named in the U18 All-Australian team in back-to-back years after two outstanding performances in the U18 National Championships.

AFLW career

Harris was drafted to her hometown team, the

, with the second selection in the

after matching a bid from the

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Havana 2006 births Living people Gold Coast Football Club (AFLW) players Australian rules footballers from the Gold Coast, Queensland