Captain, commentator, coach: The life Tiana never could have seen for herself during her HSC

When Tiana Penitani Gray sat her HSC more than a decade ago, never could she have foreseen where she would end up 13 years later.

It’s not becoming a professional athlete that would have shocked her, she says – after all, she became the youngest player to represent a senior Australian rugby team when she was selected for the rugby sevens team for the 2013 World Cup aged 17 and still at Maroubra’s South Sydney High School – but everything else that has followed has been a surprise.

“I started playing rugby sevens professionally at the age of 17, so that was my first year of year 12, and that obviously required me to travel around the world a handful of times a year and be in training camps down at the Australian Institute of Sport,” Penitani Gray says of her high school experience.

“I sat down with my deputy principal and my year adviser and basically came to the decision to take up pathways, which split year 12 over two years, just so I wasn’t missing too much school, and that essentially halved the workload for me over a couple of years. So, I did the first year at school, and then they did the second year by distance.”

Any alternative wasn’t an option, says Penitani Gray. She always knew she wanted to give football her all.

“I was quite determined. I just remember really not accepting anything other than being a professional athlete, that was always on my radar, and I never really kind of looked outside of that,” she says.

It’s certainly paid off. The 30-year-old is the captain of the Cronulla Sharks NRLW team, she’s been part of four NSW teams that have lifted the Women’s State of Origin shield, played in two NRLW grand finals and was part of the Jillaroos squad to play in Las Vegas last year.

However, she loved school, and her favourite subjects during her HSC were PDHPE and legal studies.

If football hadn’t worked out, a career in sports science or criminology and law is something she would have explored.

But life is full of surprises, and even with the NRLW still part-time, Penitani Gray has managed to make rugby league a full-time career – as a coach at Endeavour Sports High School and a sideline commentator for Fox Sports.

“I didn’t gravitate towards journalism. I wasn’t interested in being on TV,” she says.

But it comes with the territory. Since starting her career as a teenager, she’s done hundreds of interviews for newspapers, television and radio, and that’s given her invaluable experience and exposure in the media.

“I got a bit of practice in front of the camera, and I feel like I can string a sentence together, and that’s helped me along the way,” she says.

“I’ve been so fortunate to have people see something in me and give me opportunity over the years, and it’s definitely like springboarded me into broadcast.”

It’s a life and career she never could have picked for herself all those years ago.

“There’s no way that 17-year-old Tiana ever thought that she would be like working in TV or doing sideline talks. Absolutely not,” she says.

“Even if you asked me a few years ago, I’d be like, absolutely not, but I’ve always been a big believer in taking opportunities as they come, and not being too rigid in terms of your planning because life can throw curveballs.”

And that’s the advice she would give the class of 2026 as they prepare to sit their HSC exams – keep yourself open to opportunity, enjoy the moment and pursue something you love.

“My advice would be to not put so much pressure on yourself around it [HSC]. There are just so many different ways that you can achieve a good education, and just making sure that you don’t overload yourself one way or the other,” she says.

“There’s no right or wrong at all. Just follow whatever you feel like doing in the moment. Enjoy being a teenager, you can always play catch up if you have to, and there’s just so many different avenues that you can take. Enjoy the ride.”

• The Sydney Morning Herald’s HSC Study Guide for 2026 will be published online and in the newspaper on July 27. The guide has all the information and tools to motivate and inspire the 80,000 students sitting the exam this year.