By Jesse Hogan
Facing the slippery fast-bowling of her older brother Scott Coyte, and the resulting blows from the paceman who went on to play for NSW and Sydney Thunder, was not the hardest moment of Sarah Coyte's cricket-dominated childhood.
It was the season in late primary school when her twin brother Adam, with whom she was inseparable, progressed from backyard to competitive cricket while she sat watching him on the sidelines.
Southern Stars cricketer Sarah Coyte in the Mount Annan backyard in which she honed her skills with her brothers, Scott and Adam.Credit: Brendan Esposito
"Adam and Scott knew I could hold my own. Growing up with them and having competitive backyard cricket toughened me up pretty quickly," said Coyte, now a stalwart bowling all-rounder for the Southern Stars, who are in England for the women's Ashes series. "I did cop it [from Scott] quite a bit. We used to play indoor cricket against each other and he'd deliberately go on the other side so he could have a bowl at me.
"It [getting hit] didn't bother me at all. It's all part of the game. If I wanted to play with the boys I had to learn to take it, take those hits."
Sarah Coyte is fond of using tattoos as tributes to her family. The butterfly is a nod to her grandparents.Credit: Brendan Esposito
Given that fearlessness, which she also demonstrated when playing in the same junior rugby league team and relishing her role as a tackling shield for her speedy twin, it was incongruous that she did not follow Adam into competitive red-ball cricket. But one season watching on was all it took to bring the siblings back together.
"It was hard. All I wanted to do was play with my brother," she recalled. "On Saturday morning we'd wake up and mum would get him ready for cricket and I had to go and watch. I thought 'This sucks, I want to play too', so next year off we went. We played together all through the junior age groups, until I started playing girls' cricket when I was about 13 or 14."
While the Coytes had a backyard in Mount Annan, in Sydney's outer south-west, that was conducive to their "10-wicket cricket" matches after school, the youngest siblings, Sarah and Adam, developed a close affinity with the indoor cricket centre in nearby Campbelltown. The ritual they both adored was spending "hours on end" with a bucket of balls feeding throwdowns to the other, generally three or four times a week.
Sarah Coyte only bowled her medium-pacers under sufferance, typically either in indoor cricket, where all players must bowl, or in the backyard until she dismissed Adam or Scott 10 times in order to get a bat herself. She maintained that stance in her late teens, in a match in which she was captained by Lisa Sthalekar. The elite Australian all-rounder threw her the ball and was aghast, and angered, when the now 24-year-old refused the directive.
Sarah Coyte demonstrated her commitment to her family by having their names tattooed on her neck, so signify they "always have her back".Credit: Brendan Esposito
"That didn't go down well," Coyte admitted. "Playing indoor cricket I knew how to bowl and wasn't bad at it, but I didn't back myself because I'd always had a bat in my hand. She said 'Sarah, you're bowling, don't ever throw the ball back to me again'. It sort of went from there."
Coyte has since gone on to be a player picked primarily for her incisive bowling, and generally not batting any higher than eight due to the remarkable depth in the Southern Stars line-up.
"It's always good to spend a bit of time in the middle. And, when I do bat I remember, 'Oh yeah, I can do this, I just don't get a chance to do it a lot'," she said.
As well as being a training partner with Adam, an all-rounder who also went on to earn deals with NSW and Sydney Thunder, Sarah and her twin were also members of a tight-knit friendship circle that remains intact today, one completed by Scott Bailey, Gav Connor, Greg Connor, Ben Bourke and Kate Wateford.
Sarah Coyte is even closer to her family. She has proven this by making family the primary inspiration for her range of tattoos, which is approaching a dozen. Her first, getting the names of her parents and siblings on the back of her neck, which was simultaneously an act of defiance and devotion.
"That was out of spite because my dad told me I wasn't allowed to get a tattoo, so I thought, 'Well if I go and get your name on me you can't really be upset'," she chuckled. "That's why I put it there, because if there's anyone in the world that's going to have your back it's your family."
In addition to those there are butterflies on her feet to represent her grandparents and also permanent tributes to her three nephews and nieces.
She is not a big talker, even among teammates she is familiar with, so tattoos are a key way for her to express herself, to "tell part of my story".
Given Coyte's conspicuous devotion to family and friends her move to Adelaide next season, for the state-based Women's National Cricket League as well as the Women's Big Bash League, was greeted with surprise. While getting more opportunities with the bat is a factor for Coyte, she is adamant cricket considerations are clearly secondary to her belief she needs to drag herself out of her comfort zone in Sydney.
"It is hard to separate yourself from something you just run back to all the time, but I feel to move forward that's what I need to do – and my family were more than supportive of that," she said.
"I'm very much a home girl and I like my ways and my routine, so to break that and be in a new state, in a new environment, is quite daunting . . . but I've been lucky to spend a week in Adelaide already and the girls are really welcoming. I'm actually very excited to go back to start training and playing with them."
Coyte's cricketing trips to Adelaide, and her recent pre-Ashes stint there, convinced her she would be well suited to its more relaxed pace, in a place where she can be "a new person".
"I think I'll be happy in Adelaide because the only people that will know me are cricketers, so I can go and meet other people and just be Sarah. I don't have to be a 'star cricketer', so to speak. I don't like that sort of tag next to me . . . I don't want to go into the new team and be 'the Australian player'. I just want to go in and play with them, be their friend and have a good time on the field and off the field," she said.
As much as Scott and Adam did not hold back when playing against Sarah in their youth, she said both have been huge supporters of her international career, which adds another chapter with this imminent Ashes series in England, where she gets another chance to reap the benefits of her countless hours of training and playing over the past decade and a half.