STEPTO Tarni

General
STUDYING IN THE UNITED STATES
She began her university education at Salt Lake Community College [SLCC] in Utah, United States of America, where she played for the college's softball team before transferring to Oregon State University in her sophomore year. "I'm so excited to announce that I will be completing my last three years of college softball as an Oregon State Beaver. This process has been in the makings for a long time, but I could not have gotten to this point without SLCC softball. This experience [with SLCC] has really helped me in the process of becoming a Division I athlete." However, in 2021 she chose to opt out of the US college softball season in order to remain in Australia to train for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (startribune.com, 26 Feb 2021; Instagram profile, 14 Nov 2019; softball.org.au, 10 Nov 2020)

INDIGENOUS HERITAGE
Her family heritage is with the Indigenous Australian Kamilaroi and Ualarai peoples. In 2021 she was presented with an indigenous-inspired Softball Australia national jersey, designed by artist Kylie Hill, and spoke alongside teammates Janice Blackman and Stacey Porter of her experiences as an Indigenous Australian. "Never in my life would I of thought that I would get up in front of my teammates and coaches, or anyone at all and speak about what it means to me to be an Aboriginal woman. This shirt presentation made Jan, Porter and I extremely vulnerable, yet so humbled to share our stories." (Facebook profile, 19 Feb 2021; insidethegames.biz, 15 Nov 2020; Facebook profile, 24 Feb 2021; gameclothing.com.au, 09 Nov 2020)