JUMP INTO FARM LIFE
THEY know how to catch, shoot and dribble, but on Friday the JackJumpers squad got a lesson in farm life when they swapped the basketball court for an apple orchard on the team’s first official day of pre-season.
Coach Scott Roth said the manual labour required of his players at team sponsor Willie Smith’s Packing Shed was a way to humble his side and help them connect with the community.
”No matter how hard we work on the court, there’s others that work harder in more gruelling jobs and this initiative is taking these guys out of their comfort zone, igniting their work ethic, and realising how fortunate they are to be playing professional basketball and have the privileges that come with that,” Roth said.
JackJumpers guard Jack McVeigh said the team was relishing in the opportunity to get among the community.
“The whole group were lucky enough to have Andrew Smith show us around and he put us to work a bit, packing bags of apples, checking if they were good or not, and also some testing of the ciders, so it’s been a great day,” he said.
The JackJumpers’ first game is scheduled for mid November.