The Just Better Care Wollongong Roller Hawks saw a familiar face return to training this week with Jarrod Emeny back from his nine month stint in the US.

Emeny has just completed his first season at the University of Illinois which was much harder than he ever expected.

“It was really, really hard. Being away from my family was something I didn’t think was going to affect me so much. I felt alone in a room full of people. It was really difficult to still find that little bit of happiness,” says Emeny. 

“Basketball gave me the reason to be there and the reason during the day and it was a lot of fun. My teammates helped me deal with it but I missed my family, my friends and my dog so much and I missed playing with the boys. It was hard playing with other people for the first time in a while.”

Having spent two weeks back in his hometown of Mudgee catching up with family and friends, Emeny is ready to apply the tough lessons he learnt to a new look NWBL.

“Biggest take away was that I can do it. It’s a slog. It’s a very long day and a lot of training and the biggest take away is I can do it, I can survive it and sometimes during the year it felt like I couldn’t, especially being so far away so now when I go back I’m going to take all the lesson I learnt and it’s going to be much better.”

“Decision making is something I worked on a lot over there. I could do a little bit more decision making for our team and have the ball in my hand which was fun and because we’re playing so many games here this season (in Australia) I’m hoping to push my role compared to what I’ve done in the past.”

Emeny’s Illinois schedule included 20 hours a week of basketball training, as well as weight training, scheduled around four hours of classes every day then off to games all weekend.

Games usually meant road trips traveling up to ten hours on a bus to play multiple games before driving back on Sunday night. The weekly routine started all over again on Monday morning. 

The long bus trips were a new experience compared to flying with the Roller Hawks.

“I actually prefer it. I will say the US is a dead boring drive. It’s just flat and straight and boring compared to over here but being able to load up the bus in the morning and go straight to sleep as opposed to going to the airport and sitting around, plus it was a mess at the airport the one time we did fly, nothing as well run and well oiled as we have it at the Roller Hawks.”

Emeny’s arrival comes as the Roller Hawks’ representative players head to the US for a nine day tour but Roller Hawks coach Brendan Dowler isn’t worried about the disrupted preparation.

“It’ll be like bringing all the brothers and sisters back together again and once they're on court it’ll be like yesterday they were playing together so we’re looking forward to that first round and seeing that chemistry come back together that we know the Roller Hawks have,” says Dowler.

“The people who have been away have been away for basketball reasons which is really positive. They’ve been working hard in the different programs so I’m expecting them to come in shape and ready to go.”

Dowler will look to harness the progress Emeny has made overseas.

“We’re looking to play a little bit differently this year. We’ve probably relied on our stalwarts a little bit but we’ve got a few young people coming through now, Jarrod and Steve (Elliott) in particular so definitely looking to youth to help push us through especially the first rounds this year and get a bit more speed and agility out there.”

“Having a longer season, we’re looking to build and be peaking at the right time. Having a longer season does give us more opportunity to get out there, work on our combinations and find out who we are as a team this year and how we’re going to play this year and win enough games to get through to the finals and then it’s a whole new competition from there.”

The Just Better Care Wollongong Roller Hawks begin their campaign against league newcomers Manly Wheel Eagles with two games in the Illawarra on Saturday June 15th with a game at 12pm at Shellharbour City Stadium and at 7pm at the Snake Pit. A third game will be played in Manly at the Northern Beaches Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday afternoon at 5:30pm.