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Foley in 'rare air'
TweetJESSICA Foley will be breathing rarified air when she becomes a doctor in four years' time.
In South Australian basketball history - and it dates back to the 1940s - only two previous players have also made it to become doctors.
Dr Werner Linde is a revered superstar of the 1960s and Dr Darren Ng has been a more recent medical and mercurial marvel.
Foley, who signed this week to continue her WNBL playing career with Adelaide Lightning, would become the first female GP to play at Australia's highest levels.
She also has in common with fellow docs Linde and Ng the fact she is a Halls Medallist (2011) as the fairest and most brilliant player in SA, an SBL championship winner and a national league player.
Linde won the Woollacott Medal (1966-69-71) and played NBL with West Bearcats in 1980.
Ng won the Woollacott (2006-09) and played NBL with the 36ers. Both have won SBL championships.
At 30, Foley was unsure what her basketball future held but knew with great clarity she wanted to become a GP.
Having fulfilled pre-med courses during her years playing college basketball at storied Duke University, the option to proceed in medicine meant leaving Townsville and, by definition, its WNBL team the Fire.
That was no easy call after last year helping the club into the playoffs and this year's magical run concluding with the Grand Final.
"I really enjoyed playing for Townsville the last couple of years but up there they only offer a six-year (medical) course which is for people coming out of high school," she said.
"I was definitely keen to do grad medicine."
That is a four-year course and meant a return to Adelaide and Flinders University.
"When I was studying (in the US), I was pretty keen on becoming a doctor," Foley said.
"Darren (Ng) and his brother (Marcus) have done it but when I came back (to Australia from Duke), I was devoting a lot of time to basketball and trying to make the Australian team."
Having competed at the AIS, Foley enjoyed a stunningly successful career at Duke which included four 30-plus win seasons.
Drafted by the WNBA's Indiana Fever in 2006, her chance at the pro league was sabotaged by injury before she was recruited to Adelaide by its coach at the time, Chris Lucas.
A 182cm guard/forward with range, Foley thrived under Lucas and won the WNBL championship with the Lightning team he assembled and which Vicki Valk took to the 2008 flag.
Foley was an All Star Five selection that season and became Adelaide's captain before spending a year at Dandenong.
When Lucas was appointed head coach at Townsville, she moved and had two fruitful years there, averaging 10.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists in the Fire's fairytale run to the Grand Final.
Foley was ready to open a new chapter in her life, the call of the stethoscope and hitting the magical 30-year mark bringing her "home" to Adelaide where she has continued to spend WNBL off-seasons with Norwood Flames.
"I really didn't know what to expect with med school, what the time commitment would be. I'm on my way to a tute now," she said when we spoke this morning.
"And I've got exams coming up in two weeks."
Adelaide, in the throes of retaining its major players but re-casting its team in a new image with the move by dual-league MVP Suzy Batkovic to Townsville, has landed on its feet with Foley's signature.
"We are looking for an import centre now," Lightning chairman Vince Marino said.
"It is great to have Jess back. She was a captain with us and a very good player."
Foley said she left Adelaide on good terms and knew now she could combine continuing to play and her studies.
Breaking the news to Lucas had been tough, Foley having told the Fire she would not be coming back to Townsville after the Grand Final. The assumption was her studies would preclude a return, hence the "R" word - retirement - being freely mentioned.
"I told him I'd been talking with Bucks (Adelaide coach Peter Buckle) and Chris was very good about it," Foley said.
Lucas said he had watched Foley grow as a player and a person, had utmost respect for her and only wished her every success.
Then he took two aspirins and called her in the morning...
