Scholarship takes Sarah’s sporting ambitions to the next level

Overcoming a family tragedy to forge a career path in sports-based neuroscience, a Stand Like Stone Foundation (SLSF) educational scholarship proved a ‘lifesaver’ for Mount Gambier’s Sarah Dally.

Sarah was just 14 when her beloved father and ‘best friend’ Michael passed away suddenly from a cardiac arrest in 2018.

Losing Michael, the ‘heart of their family’, the absence weighed heavily on Sarah, her mum and younger brother.

“My dad and I were super close. He was the best dad I could ever ask for,” Sarah said.
“Coming to terms with losing him is the hardest thing I will ever have to do. It was a massive shock and had a huge impact on our family.”

Over the next few years and while tackling senior high school, Sarah worked three jobs in her spare time to help support her mother and younger brother, waitressing at a local café, completing a traineeship at a local gym and teaching piano lessons.

Meanwhile, a career as a professional athlete also beckoned.

Handpicked by an Australian Institute of Sport representative as a potential future cycling talent during a school visit, Sarah’s remaining hours were taken up on the bike track and travelling to state and national competitions.

Despite the multiple demands on her time, Sarah’s hard yards paid off.   Named both Dux of Mount Gambier High School and the National Rural Youth Ambassador in 2021, Sarah had multiple career pathways on her radar.

However, it was a Year 12 Psychology class that sparked an ongoing interest in the human brain and the science behind it.

Choosing to study the specialist field of cognitive neuroscience, Sarah was accepted into an Honours Degree in Psychology at UniSA.

“There’s always a neurological basis, something, whether we know what it is yet or not,” Sarah said.

“I sort of really enjoy that side of things, knowing exactly what’s happening, why it’s happening and the science behind it. When people know exactly what’s going on in their brains, it makes it easier for them to make changes in their life.”

With a move to Adelaide looming, and aware that Stand Like Stone had applications open for a number of educational scholarships, Sarah applied, writing openly and honestly about the struggles her family had faced and her desire to bring her learnings back to the city of Mount Gambier.

In early 2023, a delighted Sarah was notified she had won one of the $10k Rackhams educational scholarships, easing the financial burden of her move to Adelaide.

“Amazing, just amazing,” she said. “The scholarship was a lifesaver and I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity, it took so much pressure off the move.”

In 2022, more than $70,000 in scholarships were awarded to students across the Limestone Coast, to complete primary and secondary schooling, commence school-based apprenticeships and undertake tertiary education.

Now in her second year at university, Sarah aligns her studies with her professional cycling career, where she is now competing both nationally and internationally as part of an elite women’s team.

“There’s a lot you can bring to the table when you are an athlete and a psychologist and practicing. It’s quite a niche field and I think it all ties in, I could apply what I was learning into my career as an athlete,” Sarah said.

“I’m really interested in more the practical and positive side of psychology, working with people who are going well or they’re pretty happy in life, but trying to get to the next level.

“That’s why I really like working with athletes because they’re already such high achievers. They want to do everything that they can to get to the one per cent rule – trying to be one per cent better today than you were yesterday.”

One day, Sarah aspires to her own version of the one per cent rule, aiming to represent Australia in cycling at a future Olympics.

The dream is a far cry from her childhood in Mount Gambier, where she remembers riding up Bay Road on her bike and falling off and chipping her tooth – a story which often gets an airing for laughs.

Now 20 years old and aware of the limitations of a professional sporting career, Sarah has plans on coming back to Mount Gambier and perhaps opening her own business in sports psychology.

“I love it down here,” Sarah said. “It’s a beautiful place to bring up a family and I’m so grateful that I got to live down here.

“I think there are so many opportunities down here as well and I’m not someone to ever say no to an opportunity.”

Above all, Sarah plans on bringing her skills and experience back to her sports-mad hometown in a highly topical field – specialising in brain injuries in young sportspeople.

“It’s really important, the measures put in place at a young age so that it can prevent things in the future,” she said.

“As part of neuroscience, I get to look at the brain and see the physical impact it can have, with concussions and other injuries. The way that the brain can heal itself is really cool as well.”

“I had a friend in year 12 who had a really bad cycling accident, and she found it difficult throughout the whole of year 12 concentrating and having bad headaches, so I have seen firsthand the impacts that it can have on your life.

“It’s just a lot more prevalent now, I think. We know more about it now and people are starting to speak up more about it and the way it can have lifelong impacts.”

Whether work or play, in everything Sarah does, her beloved dad is never far away from her thoughts.

“We had a super close family growing up. He was the best dad I could ever ask for and I am really grateful that I got 14 years with him,” she said.

“My dad taught me so much and always that there’s a solution to every problem. If I’m having a bad day, I’m like, alright, just think, ‘what would dad say’?

“The first couple of years were really hard, but now I’ve been able to work through that and I’m in a really good place now.

“Everything I’ve been through has taught me that you always have to make the most of the time that you have. Enjoy it and do what makes you happy.”

This story is part of the Stand Like Stone Foundation’s 20 Years of Giving Back storytelling project. For more stories, visit www.standlikestone.com.au