By RUSSELL BENNETT
PAKENHAM Warriors’ point guard Jay Ferriere has been forced to face his sporting mortality far earlier than he ever could have imagined.
But the 30-year-old knows there’s more to life than basketball, no matter how much he loves playing the game.
Ferriere was seemingly on track to playing a major role in the Warriors’ pursuit of a Big V Division 2 championship this season before he got the devastating news in December that his degenerative hip injury was going to force him to walk away from the game.
Ferriere was dealing with a lower abdominal injury while playing his college basketball in New York in 2010 when a specialist first alerted him to his degenerative hip. It’s likely he was born with it.
He again had injury worries last season – his first with the Warriors – with a hamstring injury forcing him to miss some games.
But having recovered from that, his hip was starting to cause discomfort at a greater pace over this pre-season.
“I was just trying to keep pushing,” he said.
“I wanted to redeem myself from last season, but my body just wasn’t responding.”
Another specialist, this time in Melbourne, confirmed that his hip was degenerating at a fast rate.
“He said I could play but I’d pull up sore and then I’d have to deal with the damage of another season,” Ferriere said.
“It’s devastating to find out that I’ll need a hip replacement but if I kept playing I’d need one by my mid-30s.
“I just took a step back and took stock of what was really important.
“I want to one day be able to kick the footy and wrestle with my kids.
“If I stop now, maybe I postpone it (the surgery) until my mid-40s.”
Ferriere chose his quality of life over basketball and it was a decision he sat on for two weeks.
“Basketball helped me to travel and get an education but in the end it’s just a game,” he said, admitting it was a blow to his ego not being able to prove his worth on the court anymore.
“I was really nervous when I told my team mates but they were extremely supportive of my decision.
“I knew they’d back me but I was apprehensive because I was the team’s starting point guard and I’d made the decision to walk away.”
Ferriere, who won the Golden Hands award last season for his assists to steals ratio, said he’d love to stay involved with the Warriors in a junior development role.
“I’d love to stay involved,” he said.
“If I can still help there, I’m all about that.”
Meanwhile, Ferriere’s former team mates are fresh off returning from a pre-season camp at Trafalgar.
Warriors star and leader James Topp said the camp was; “fantastic for getting to know a lot of the new guys on the team”.
“I think it’ll give us a subconscious advantage on court,” he said.
“There’ll be a natural progression for the playing group after spending time away together.
“The camp brought some of the guys out of their shells and took them out of their comfort zones and it’s been great for the leadership of all the guys.”
Topp said the camp had both a physical and a mental focus, but the biggest improvement from within the group would come on the mental side.
“We got quite a bit out of the two rookies in particular – Lee Belton and Matt Darcy,” Topp said.
“They showed a real desire to present to the group in a strong manner and they proved they didn’t just want to make up the numbers.”
Topp is still bouncing back to full fitness in the wake of his own injury dramas but said; “We have a lot more depth this year so it should enable me to get a bit more rest over the pre-season.”
The Warriors will host fellow Division 2 sides Maccabi and Oakleigh in a triangular series this Saturday at Beaconhills College on Toomuc Valley Road in Pakenham from 4pm. They will then battle it out with Coburg at ‘The Coliseum’ at Cardinia Life on Sunday.
Keep an eye on this week’s Pakenham News for a story on new Warriors recruits Darcy and Belton.
