When Jarrod Emeny’s wheelchair handcycle broke down on the first day of classes in America, it was just another stumbling block on a bumpy road to live out his college dream.
The device attaches to the front of manual wheelchairs converting them into motorised bikes, allowing users to cover almost any terrain.
“That broke on the first day of semester and I can't find anyone to help me get it back on the road! I did get in a bit of exploring before it broke, plus we had a camping trip with the team that got us into the sticks,” says Emeny.
Fortunately the University of Illinois’ campus is very flat but it means this country boy has found it hard to take a break from his city surroundings; the college is one of the largest in America, with over 53,000 students enrolled. By comparison, his home town of Mudgee boasts just over 12,500 people in total.
“Just the business college alone has as many people as all of the University of Wollongong I feel like. It's definitely more like a city too. Harder to get away from everyone and get in touch with nature so I miss that a lot. It also feels like the whole city is the university. The campus is just so large, it’s students everywhere you look.”
The latest setback is something Emeny is getting used to on this adventure. He spent days sitting in line at the US Embassy trying to sort out visa issues at the last minute.
On the day of his departure, his plane was stuck on the tarmac for 4 hours after a disruptive passenger on an already departed flight threatened the crew and (falsely) claimed to have explosives on board. The pilot opted to return to Sydney which forced the entire airport to shut down.
“Of course this is happening to me. After so many struggles it was just another thing to wait to be over. The airline did let us know what was going on and that it was just going to be a small wait until the long air strip would be free. After a couple hours they decided to unload some freight to be able to use the shorter runway.”
However on the court things are a little less hectic and two months into his US college stint, Emeny is reveling in his new environment.
“The basketball has been great, we have a few younger guys I have had to adjust to playing with. It’s a different dynamic compared to the Roller Hawks boys but I’ve been enjoying my time here.”
“I’ve already been able to build some really solid friendships and made some memories I'll have forever. And the season hasn't even started yet!”
“We have been doing some practice games lately at training. Mostly just 20 minute halves and they have been highly beneficial and show some promising abilities. We scrimmage a similar amount to what we do back home and there have been some really good games that give us all confidence to go into our first weekend firing.”
Emeny is just days away from his first game, with his Illinois side traveling to Arlington, Texas for the opening tournament of the college season.
While this weekend’s host, the University of Texas falls short of Illinois’ student body with ‘only’ 40,000 combined undergrads and postgraduates, Arlington is something of a sporting capital in Texas, home to baseball’s Texas Rangers, basketball’s Dallas Wings and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
“Yeah I'm super excited to see a new city and explore some of their culture. We won't get much time off with three games Friday and one on Saturday with a 16 hour bus trip there and back.”
“I'm a little nervous about the adjustment to college rules but I know if I play off instinct and add the work we have done over the last couple of months it's going to be a promising result.”
The Texas tournament is the first of eight events on the wheelchair basketball calendar.
“Unfortunately we will be down our main big man this weekend so we are going to be running a little smaller than our main line up but that gives the new guys a chance to step up so it's exciting.”