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Written by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 18 November 2008 |
His basketball career came to an agonizing halt in January of 2006.
Jari Deutsch is finally back on the floor, and he was back in Prince George last weekend as a member of the Langara College Falcons.
Deutsch was at the Northern Sport Centre to play against his former team, the UNBC Northern Timberwolves. The product of Golden is just happy to once again be on the court. After two years of rehabilitation for a ruptured left Achilles tendon, he’s now four contests into his return to the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association.
“It was a rough battle (to get back),” said Deutsch, who was in his second season with UNBC when he blew his Achilles during a Jan. 27, 2006 road game against the Douglas College Royals. “I was really out of shape just because I hadn’t been playing much basketball. It’s good to be back. It took a while to get back into it.”
Typically, six months to one year is the recovery time for an Achilles injury such as the one Deutsch suffered. But, he took extra time to make sure he was completely healed. He’s glad he did.
“Everything’s good,” said the 25-year-old. “I don’t even think about (the injury) now. Now and then I’ll tell the story about how I was wandering around up north in Prince George on crutches.”
Deutsch went from Prince George to Vancouver, where he enrolled at Langara. He did play some men’s league basketball during his break from the competitive game, but was careful not to push himself too hard.
Now he’s in top form, as fans at the Sport Centre witnessed. Deutsch was one of the highest-flying Falcons, especially in the Friday night game. In that contest, he poured in 17 points from his position in the Langara backcourt and helped his new club to a 79-73 win. The next night, Deutsch was a little quieter and his Falcons fell 70-61 to the T-wolves.
The games were important, of course, but Deutsch was thrilled just to be here. Seeing the familiar faces of former head coach Zane Robison, and of ex-teammates A.J. Thibault, Jarett Borsoi and Paul Burkholder made the trip north extra special for him.
Naturally, Deutsch took some ribbing.
“Zane and A.J. and a bunch of guys in the crowd were trying to heckle me,” he said with a laugh. “They want to support me, but at the same time they want the (UNBC) boys to win. I heard them. You can’t miss A.J. and Zane yelling at you.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 November 2008 )
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