Depsite being thrown a major hurdle, 19-year-old Jayda Clark is still set for stardom in women’s basketball.
The Western Australian product suffered a ruptured ACL to begin the 2024 NBL1 West season, leaving her unavailable for both the Perry Lakes Hawks’ and the current WNBL season with the UC Capitals.
With a full 12 months of recovery, Clark will come into April fresh and desperate to finally play high-level basketball again.
“I'm so excited. Making it through only a minute and 40 seconds in the first game last season was pretty rough,” she joking told NBL1 Media.
“It's good to be home again, play in front of my family and friends. Hopefully, this season looks a lot different for me. Playing against my rival teams like Warwick and Joondalup, I live up that way. Those would be great games, this league's pretty competitive.
“I'm just excited to get back on court, to be honest. That's kind of my main focus is to get back out there, get back running and hopefully we can just go from there.”
While basketball is obviously her favourite activity, Clark explained how much she gets to travel is not lost on her. Before the age of 20, she’d already lived in Perth and Canberra, played in cities across the country and represented Australia in Jordan, Spain and Hungry.
However, she said being forced to slow down and stay with family back in Perth has been a “blessing in disguise”.
“I love the travelling aspect. I enjoyed being out of home, I liked living at the Institute. You gain a lot of independence from it and I like that,” she said.
“Once I was injured, I was forced to be at home. I hadn't been home for like three and a half years, so it was nice. It was almost like a blessing in disguise and a good reset for me. I'm happy I got to stay home and do my rehab and have my family surround me through that tough time.”
Being a Warwick junior, and playing with the Centre of Excellence in the former Wildcard Series where the team travelled across the country (notably playing then title-contenders Joondalup and Warwick 2022), Clark has seen first-hand how strong Western Australian basketball has become in the past few seasons.
She explained just how excited she is to be involved in the conference at this pivot stage of its progression.
“I honestly just think the growth of this league, I mean we've got some great players coming in. You've got your Anneli Maley’s, you've got some WNBL players that are coming over here,” she said.
“It's going to be really exciting, it's going to be really competitive this year and it's only getting better and better each year.”
While it would have been easy to join powerhouse clubs like her junior club Warwick or her local Joondalup, Clark believes in Perry Lakes’ culture. With the success the Capitals have seen through their camaraderie, culture has become a major factor for her.
Being recruited by her former WA State team coach Craig Mansfield, she believes the team he’s built can stand against the rest of the conference.
“I heard really good things about their culture, coming back from Canberra, that was always kind of a big thing on my list when it comes to signing with teams,” she said.
“(Craig) was another big reason why I signed there, he's great. He really focuses on your personal development as well as keeping his team close-knit. I think that's what makes teams fun and enjoyable. I couldn't think of a better team to be in than this one, especially coming off injury.”
The NBL1 West starts April 4th. Stay up-to-date with all the latest signings via the Roster Tracker here.
