NICK'S INSPIRATION
Supercats legend’s emotional return after 671 days out
One of the Geelong Supercats' all-time greats will end his 671-day injury lay-off tonight against Frankston, as he looks to inspire the greatest treasure of his life. Nick Owusu will hit the court with a new perspective when he plays in front of eight-nonth-old son Jonathon for the first time. FULL STORY, MORE BASKETBALL: PAGE91
ONE of Geelong Supercats’ all-time legends will end his injury-enforced 671-day absence from the SEABL against Frankston tonight in a bid to inspire the greatest treasure of his life.
After almost two years of pain and struggle with knee tendinitis, veteran point guard Nick Owusu will hit the court once again with a new perspective since this will be the first time he plays in front of his eight-month-old son Jonathon. While he never left the Supercats family, it will be an emotional return for Owusu, who despite some bleak times, always felt he would one day step back on the court.
“There definitely were times you wondered if age was starting to catch up and things weren’t going as quickly as you would like with your rehab and things getting better; those questions do slip into your mind, that maybe your best is past you or your body’s not going to get back to the level where you’re going to be able to play at a high level, but I always held those hopes,” Owusu said.
“Probably at the start of this season I took a bit of a step back from the hard training and being involved at all the team practices and things like that and stepped back a bit and that was really good for me to help take a bit of pressure off.
“Instead of pushing really hard to get back as soon as possible, it was a case of just getting my body right and when it’s time I’ll step back in, rather than try to work to a timeline as quick as possible.”
Golf and “flogging it” in the gym, along with rehab, came to the fore, but after stepping away from what was his No.1 priority, he easily slipped into another when Jonathan arrived for him and fiancee Stacey Harbison.
“I’ll be running out there on Saturday night with him on to the court and that’s probably been something I’ve envisioned since the start of this.
“He hasn’t been to any of my games before. He wasn’t born last time I played and that’s something that has been motivating for me in those long days at the gym, to have that dream.
“It will be special, if not for that reason.
“Funnily enough, I do a lot of coaching around Geelong at the moment and there’s jun- iors that I coach that have never seen me play, so it might be a bit of a surprise for them to see me out on the court.”
Little do they know how much it means for Owusu to get back on that court after 16 years in the Supercats system — a one-club player of 367 career games — and even 10 or 15 minutes on court would be a success after such a long time spent on the sidelines.
“I just want to have an impact and contribute whatever I can to help the team get a win, that’s the most important thing to me,” Owusu said.
“I guess as a young guy, you want to go out there and prove things to people and yourself in terms of stats and numbers and I guess I’m beyond that.
“In the last month or so I’ve been able to get back and focus on basketball and I think my form is relatively good, all things considered. I feel like I’m in pretty good touch, but I’m definitely going to be rusty.
“I feel like I’m ready to get back out there and contribute something to the team to help us try to get back on track.”
Supercats v Frankston tonight, The Arena, 7pm