Sports Locker • November/December 2024 • Audra Whittle

Returning to school invigorates the aspirations for a new year and memories of past ones. For high school athletes, it is a time saturated with exercise, focus, and competition. This year at Russellville High School, an accomplished student-athlete returns as a junior, ready to demonstrate her talent. She brings an even keeled ambition burning to do great things, to celebrate with teammates as champions. She loves basketball and track and field, and softball, of course. Already with several years of podium titles, Audra Whittle is tuned, trained, and ready for the familiar taste of victory.

Going back to her early days of T-ball and Upward Basketball, Audra enjoys the competitive cooperation in sports. “I am pretty competitive, and I like to push myself to do better each time, to never stop learning and improving. My greatest joy is celebrating with my teammates. And I like to win!” Winning is something Audra knows well. Right off the bat in freshman year, she and her teammates brought home the bronze medal in state softball and were 1st place victors in districts. The following year, last year, Audra batted her way to the homerun record in the state. Not to mention her state qualification in archery! Standing on her foundation of victories, Audra has powerful goals for the upcoming months. “I always want to keep improving in softball and basketball, to keep moving forward! In track I am focused on making it to sectionals again in long jump and pole vault, [hopefully] to sectionals in discus and javelin.”

As with many great athletes, the supporters and coaches are essential. “My parents and my grandparents are my biggest fans always. I am fortunate to have had many great coaches along my path too. Coach Branson and Coach Rulo encourage and push me, and Coach Carn and Coach Young always have something positive, even if sometimes it’s just a hot cup of coffee. My travel coaches and my hitting coach get a shoutout too for their wisdom and skill improvement.” Audra’s little sister, Erin, an athlete too, helps keep Audra sharp on the field and the court as teammates. From the community, Audra notes the support that Russellville gives as it “helps our teams in so many ways. Fans show up for games all the time. People and businesses come out for parades, homecoming and Christmas- Russellville is a great sports town.” Before, after, or in-between sessions of training, Audra enjoys serving as an officer with the FFA chapter and a Sports Crusader counselor. With future aspirations to study veterinary medicine, she loves anatomy, history, and chemistry, and to read- “The number of books I read in a year is ridiculous.” Audra hopes for a trip to Europe, to “ride the trains, and visit, especially, Germany and as many places as I can!”

Audra is a focused athlete and an inspiring teammate. In all the sweat, swinging, and shooting, she keeps a good heart and level head. As her parents say, “Audra works hard, in season and out of season, to be the best contributor she can. We are extremely proud of Audra and the way she encourages others and handles herself in a competitive environment. We are very proud of her as an athlete and a student, but most of all as a person.” Audra, with two years of high school still to go, hopes her zeal will motivate others. “I want to leave a legacy of success so the younger kids can be proud to be a Russellville Indian and want to keep the traditions. Also, I want them to keep up the dancing on the field or court, to be relaxed, and keep remembering that it should be fun too!” Keep an eye out for the talented junior Audra Whittle on the court, the field, and the track this junior year!