EBONY Rolph is itching to get back on the basketball court.
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A new season for a new team was just days away when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the former Portland and Warrnambool player's plans to a halt.
Rolph, now 25 and with Australian junior and WNBL honours on her resume, had signed with Big V club Wyndham, previously Werribee, for the 2020 season.
It loomed as an opportunity to play a high standard and juggle her fledgling career as a nurse at St John of God Hospital in Geelong.
"It is hard sometimes to try and juggle them both," she told The Standard.
"The thing I am finding hardest is I normally put a lot of time and effort into basketball, and anything I do really, and I think that's the biggest thing, when I am working as a nurse and also trying to put in those extra sessions in basketball, it's getting a little bit harder.
"But I hope I do continue to play for a little bit. I do really enjoy it, especially now I can't play for a while I am really itching to get back.
"The thing I miss the most is the team aspect and being in and around a good group of girls. That is pretty much what I play for now."
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Rolph first played basketball in Portland as a 12-year-old, quickly rising through the ranks.
Soon Warrnambool Mermaids came calling. She spent three seasons with the Big V club before moving to Geelong in 2011, graduating from Belmont High School the following year.
Her basketball commitments ramped up - she represented Australia at the 3x3 under 18 world championships in Spain and spent three seasons with WNBL franchise Bendigo Spirit, the first as a development player.
Through it all there was a constant - Geelong Supercats.
Rolph played eight seasons at various levels - Victorian Junior Basketball League, Big V and SEABL, now known as NBL1, before deciding to join Wyndham this year.
"It was for something different and they have a good program," she said.
"I thought it would be a good fit."
But Rolph's life is entrenched in Geelong.
She completed a double degree in nursing and psychology at Deakin University and started at St John of God Hospital last year.
She's also built a house in Armstrong Creek with her boyfriend of three years Kurt Rogers, who she met while working part-time in a Telstra shop, while her parents Sharon and Mark and younger sister Tiarna, 24, have also shifted to the area.
Older sister Stacey, 27, is not far away in Melbourne.
Childhood memories from Portland still resonate and she visits her extended family in the seaside town for special occasions.
"It is hard to pinpoint one (highlight) because my whole junior career at Portland Coasters was awesome," Rolph reflected.
"There's not that many people in Portland so every year the team would be very similar and we'd have the same group of girls and every second year I got to play with my older sister Stacey which was a massive highlight."
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Rolph, who represented Vic Country as a teenager, remembers the twice weekly two-hour round trips from Portland to train with Warrnambool too.
She played under Lee Primmer and Peter Davis during her time in green.
"One year we had a killer team - we had Louise McLean, who is now Louise Brown, and Katie Davis," she said.
"We had a really good group that year which was amazing for such a young player to play with such experienced players."
Rolph was part of a new wave of basketball.
She represented Australia at the 3x3 under 18 world championships in Spain when the concept was still in its infancy.
The Aussies only lost one game for the tournament and finished with a bronze medal.
"It was pretty surreal. It was absolutely just crazy. I couldn't believe it at the time and it was just such an honour even though it was 3x3 and not real 5x5 basketball," Rolph said.
"But still to put on the green and gold and represent Australia in any capacity was like a dream come true and to go to Spain with the beautiful weather (was great). We played outdoors."
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The fast-paced 3x3 game, which is played on a half-court, will make its Olympic debut at the postponed Tokyo games next year.
"Back then they were trying to really push it to be an Olympic sport," Rolph said of her experience.
"I think it was only the second or third year they had the under 18 champs so it was still really fresh which was good.
"We had to learn the game so we did a lot of training together and figured out what worked and what didn't.
"Now it's huge. There's tournaments all the time throughout Australia and representing Australia in 3x3 is a pretty big deal.
"I do a couple of tournaments every now and then, the ones that are in Melbourne and Geelong.
"The most recent one was 3x3 Hustle which I think was on TV, on Kayo."
Rolph is content off the court too. She's working full-time on a surgical ward which specialises in orthopedics and urology.
It is reward after juggling study and basketball commitments.
"The double degree goes for four years but because of basketball, I did it over five," she said.
"It was difficult when I was doing Geelong (basketball in winter), Bendigo (basketball in summer) and study.
"When I was in Geelong it was fine because I could go to all my classes but when it overlapped and I had to go to Bendigo, that was when most of the placements were being done. It was really hard to try and do it all at the same time.
"That is why I took the five years because I did all my psychology subjects that didn't need placement and all the nursing ones that didn't include it during the time I was playing in Bendigo.
"I left all my placement to the last year."
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