How elite sports star Jessica Foley went from hydrology to the ED

Former champion basketballer Dr Jessica Foley has been drafted by the Crows’ AFLW side and uses attributes learnt on the sports field while working in Noarlunga Hospital’s Emergency Department.

Former Lightning captain Dr Jess Foley at the at Noarlunga Hospital. She has been drafted to the Crows for the next season. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

Training, commitment, teamwork, decision-making under pressure.

These attributes, along with silky skills, took athlete Jess Foley to elite levels as a basketballer and now as a recruit to the Crows’ AFLW team.

They are also the attributes Dr Foley calls on during her work in the Noarlunga Hospital emergency department.

Her stellar athletic career is well documented — in basketball as an Australian player, championship Adelaide Lightning captain, dual Halls Medallist and four-time premiership winner with Norwood.

Now she has turned her talent to footy, being drafted by the Crows, after a breakout season with Sturt, where she will join 2008 Lightning premiership teammate Erin Phillips.

Less known is how she has juggled the demands of elite sport with studying for a Masters degree in groundwater hydrology to a medical degree, from Flinders University.

Now a resident medical officer based at Noarlunga Hospital after two years of rotations through everything from orthopaedics and urology to mental health and cardiothoracic surgery at Flinders Medical Centre, Dr Foley has just been accepted into GP training.

Jess Foley in action for Adelaide Lightning against Perth Lynx.

“I’m keen to get started in the GP training program; I’m really interested in sports medicine,” she says.

Don’t think medicine has been a free kick for Dr Foley. Or even her decorated sports career, for that matter.

She grew up in Albury-Wodonga as the youngest of four, and admits playing backyard sport with two brothers, a sister and father gave her “grunt” to mix it with her bigger siblings.

At 183cm, she has been recruited as a ruck option for the Crows but was a shrimp as a child.

“I was a small kid. I was tiny as a junior but that actually helped me with basketball,” she recalls. “I had to work that much harder.”

Her mum was a nurse in a GP surgery, and Dr Foley says as a child she thought her career might be as a doctor’s receptionist. Instead, she did a science degree majoring in environmental science and, as her basketball career bloomed, she moved to the Duke University in the US on a basketball scholarship where she combined study with sport from 2002-06.

“We had a couple of doctors who were big fans of the basketball team; one was gracious enough to let me shadow him in hospital,” Dr Foley says.

The medical bug bit, but juggling elite sport and studying medicine was always going to be tough.

“I came home from the States and looked at medicine, looked at environmental health courses, and didn’t see how I could manage to break into the Opals doing full-time medicine,” Dr Foley says.

“So I did groundwater hydrology — I was doing a master’s part time while playing in a lot of teams.”

Jess Foley tackled by Justine Mules during an internal Crows AFLW practice match. Picture: Tom Huntley

Medicine eventually won out and she graduated from Flinders University with her medical degree. She sees plenty of parallels between sport and medicine, including the knowledge and mentoring that senior “players” pass on.

“One of the best things is working alongside consultants every day,” Dr Foley says.

“They have been very gracious, giving us enough independence while guiding us.

“There is plenty of teamwork in the Noarlunga ED. It’s a small unit and the doctors work together closely.

“I’m loving the ED work as it’s a bit like GP work — you’re never sure what’s going to walk through the door needing help.

“I’ve come across a few athletes who have been in state teams for various sports and have got into health, and have found they really complement each other.

“I think athletes do well in medicine and careers generally — they work hard, they commit, they know about teamwork.”

That commitment includes the sport mantra that it takes 10,000 hours of training to master a skill.

“I do believe in that,” Dr Foley says. “You need 10,000 hours of training to have the hardness and balance and composure under pressure. You can’t just replace that experience with skill.

“It’s pretty obvious the case with medicine, too — the most experienced people in hospitals make the right decisions, they pick up on things that can go wrong. It takes years of experience to develop that, and it’s a privilege to work with such people and learn from them.”

In an era of professional sport, just how many people will be able to balance an elite on-field career with one off-field needing years of study is open to question, but Dr Foley encourages youngsters to pursue all their dreams.

“If you’re passionate about something, whether it be medicine or sport, it is easy to commit, but there will be sacrifices,” Dr Foley says.

“Be prepared to miss the occasional Christmas, various functions, and be prepared to be working while others are on holidays. But it’s worth it — you make the greatest friends and have the greatest memories.”