Being the second youngest daughter in the Pauley family has put Austine in a strange position. She has grown up watching her older sisters play basketball and softball for FHN and now in her junior year she has continued the tradition.
Austine comes from a large family; she has four sisters and two younger brothers. But they have always had at least one thing in common: athletics. Austine began playing basketball and softball in the fourth grade, which is something that her father encouraged her to do.
“I think he was really interested in them and wanted us to play to try it out,” Austine said
Despite an obvious dedication to sports, Austine describes her family’s talents as average. And although it may seem strange that they all play the same two sports, Austine sees it as a positive thing.
“[Other families] probably all go their own ways like whatever the kid wants to go in to,” Austine said. “But now that we all play the same thing it’s kinda like we feed off of each other.”
Although Austine considers her oldest sister Rachel the best athlete of the family Austine broke Rachel’s home run record her sophomore year.
“I didn’t know what the record was until after the season was over,” Austine said. “I was surprised and excited when I found out. I couldn’t wait until the next season to try and break my own record.”
Austine has enjoyed playing the same sports as her sisters because she uses their past successes as a way to motivate herself to be better than them.
“I think [watching my sisters] helped me because I’m so competitive I just always want to beat everybody and since Rachel set the homerun record I felt like I had to beat it,” Austine said. “I couldn’t have my dad talking about her the whole time.”
Over the years the basketball coaches at FHN have changed, but science teacher Dawn Hahn has coached all of the Pauley girls either as the head coach, or as the assistant. Hahn believes that all of the Pauley girls have been born with skills but over the years they have continued to improve.
“I think that they all, from whatever gene they have picked up from mom or dad whatever they do, all of those kids will do it 100 percent no matter what,” Hahn said.
But the tradition of Pauley athletes doesn’t end with Austine. She has two younger brothers, and a younger sister, Sahaura, who is a freshman and also plays basketball and softball.
“I’ll go to the gym with her and help or watch games and tell her what she needs to do,” Austine said. “I also like to set an example because you can’t ask someone to do something you can’t do yourself.”
Sahaura played freshman softball and JV basketball, according to her she has learned many things from watching her big sister.
“She has taught me that size doesn’t matter,” Sahaura said. “Also you can still be small and powerful. If you work hard good things will come.”
Since the Pauley’s have all practiced and worked together Hahn has seen similarities in Austine and her sisters in their dedication to the game and the way that they perform and push themselves.
“I see a lot of the hustle plays and every once in a while when you look down the floor and go ‘Oh my gosh how did she make that happen’ those are things that I remember Rachel doing and Summer,” Hahn said. “In their own way and in different aspects of the game but there were always times that you look out there and go ‘Yep that’s a Pauley.’”
According to Hahn Austine is not only an audible leader in the team. She leads by example and shows that she can accomplish what is expected of her and can push herself to the next level.
“Austine is never satisfied with what she is able to do she always wants to get better and the personality trait where she is never going to be satisfied is probably the best driving force an athlete can have,” Hahn said.
