Shoot for the stars with Tradies Meteors’ Sara Hungerford

Posted on 12 September, 2014

Sara Hungerford is not your average athlete.

In fact she’s much, much more. A cardiologist by day at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital and an ACT Tradies Meteor by night, (or maybe it’s the other way around), the cricket All Rounder is dedicated to both her career and sport.

Travelling back and forth between her hometown Sydney, Wagga for work and Canberra for training sessions, Sara certainly knows how to keep the balls in the air.

“It’s a little bit of a logistical feat because I am … one of the medical registrars in Wagga so sometimes I train in Sydney, sometimes in Canberra,” she says.

“It just depends what’s happening with the team.”

But despite a busy schedule Sara loves the workload, which requires more than just skill to perform comprehensive, intricate surgeries and manage a bat and ball.

“I do my best, but I find I am always tired at the moment,” she goes on.

“I think they [surgery and cricket] compliment each other. I think there is a lot about being a elite sportsperson that translates into medicine and I think that the cross over there is surprisingly not too dissimilar.”

Since her fourth year as a medical student, Sara knew she wanted to be a cardiologist and says the workload has only increased from then.

For the past 12 to 18 months Sara has balanced her commitment to cricket, working full-time and studying full-time to complete her physicians exam.

Yet nothing is slowing her down as she continues to strive for success in both her cricketing and medical career; the very thing that also drives her to follow both her passions.

“I think I take enjoyment from one into the other so when I am doing one [playing cricket or performing a surgery] I am enjoying it for what it is and when I am doing the other it is equally a break..well sort of a break from each other and so I can find it quite relaxing,” says Sara.

Although there are times when she questions her choice to keep her calendar full with work and cricket commitments.

“I think if you love what you are doing then you can do both,” she explains.

“And I still love my medicine and I still love my cricket and I am able to play.”

She says that once the enjoyment of the game has gone it would not take her long before she gave it up for good.

As Sara has progressed in her sporting career her financial situation has changed and with a mortgage and her future to think about, she says if she had to choose, medicine would win over the semi-professional sport.

“For someone in my position I can’t really make a living from the game at the moment, so if I was led by the money in my pocket it would have to be medicine,” says Sara.

Like any of us, Sarah has personal and financial responsibilities to consider but if it were actually feasible financially, then the cricket pitch is were you’d find her.

“I would happily take time off medicine just to play cricket full time,” she confesses.

The epitome of what it means to be looked up to by others, Sara understands and agrees that both young girls and women need strong female sporting role models in today’s society.

“I think it is just as important for women to have good female role models and that should be the progression of the sport,” says Sara.

“Whether or not that happens in my playing time or in the next five to 10 years, however, will be anyone’s guess.”

Sara is not without her own role models either including Elise Perry, an Australian cricket and soccer star, who went to the same school as she did.

“I am really pleased to see how she (Perry) has progressed and made a lot out of her sporting ability as a full time professional athlete and I think she is just such a wonderful role model for younger girls,” says Sara.

Having worked extremely hard to reach her own professional and personal goals, Sara offers up advice for those aspiring to their own goals.

“Dream big,” she says.

“I think if you are really passionate about something, go after it and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise because they often do.”

Sara will line up for the ACT Tradies Meteors in their upcoming 2014-15 Twenty20 season and will play home matches at Manuka Oval.