Jasmine Simmons may be just 23, but she’s already had an incredible sporting journey and her trek began right here where she played footy for North Broken Hill.
Jasmine began her footy career, like many others, playing in Auskick, and then playing all the way through to her early high school years with North Broken Hill.
She was also making a name for herself in junior basketball at the same time.
“Honestly, I just wanted to be like my older brother,” Jasmine told us.
“Basketball did take over for me. It was my preference because at the time there was no real career path for [women] in footy.”
Part of her basketball story was representing the Broken Hill Broncos.
“That was absolutely unreal. I had such great people around me. The Broken Hill basketball club was so good to me as a kid.
“I grew up playing Broncos until I moved to Mildura. I loved that. Broncos is what made me fall in love with basketball.
The coaches all helped me in more ways than I could ever describe. Their belief and love for me during my younger years playing basketball is what set me up to achieve what I have achieved.”
Moving to Mildura saw Jasmine take basketball to the next level. After being knocked back for the Victoria Country representative side, she would be selected for the New South Wales Country side.
“I got picked for the NSW Country side at an under 16s state tournament in Geelong.”
AUSSIE INSTITUTE OF SPORT CALLS…
It was at that tournament Jasmine was scouted and offered a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport, which ultimately gave her the opportunity to be a part of the Australian development squad.
“It was a year, a process of trainings and camps, tournaments and then yeah eventually I got selected to play for Australia for under 17s. And then I was blessed with the opportunity to play for Australia at the World Uni Games as well.”
The World University Games is an international multi-sport event, organised for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation. Jasmine and the Australian team won gold at the World Uni Games, defeating America in the process.
“I don’t think anything ever beats putting on your country’s colours,” she says.
“I think under 17s was extremely special because it was the first time, I had done that, represented Australia.
“World Uni games was special because I played with a bunch of my old friends from u-17s at that tournament in Italy. It was like coming full circle.”
Jasmine would continue to collect milestones. Including getting the opportunity to play college basketball in the United States with Oregon State. She was scouted at the under 17s tournament where she was representing Australia.
“It was never really on the agenda for me [college ball] because my dream was always to play in the Women’s National Basketball League [WNBL] and The Opals [Australia’s national women’s side]. And I still have that dream”
College teams were so keen to secure Jasmine for their program they flew to Australia to meet with Jasmine and her family in Gol Gol. Once she had decided to follow the collegiate athlete path, she went with her family to the US to look at different schools. It didn’t take her long to decide on Oregon State.
AN OREGON STATE OF MIND…
“I went and visited one school before Oregon State, but as soon as I stepped on the OS campus and met all the girls, I kind of just knew it was the place for me. It was such a great environment; the girls were just so loving, and you could tell they had a winning culture.”
Jasmine was a valuable ‘sixth man’ for the Beavers. She contributed valuable points from the bench as her side made the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ stage in the NCAA twice and the ‘Elite Eight’ in her other season.
“I probably brought more splinters back to Australia with me than anything after sitting on the bench so much,” she laughs.
“I absolutely loved playing there. It was challenging because it was a whole new style of basketball. But I pretty much had my best friends playing alongside of me, which helped immensely.”
The Silver City native would forego her last year in the States during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It had been a year since she had seen her family and the point guard didn’t fancy going another year without seeing her loved ones, so she elected to complete her studies from home, online.
“I think, professionally, it was the right decision for me and my sporting career at that time.”
The Australian juniors captain and college basketball star would be proved right with that decision. Incredibly, as she sat in hotel quarantine on her return from the United States – she began receiving direct messages on Instagram from AFLW clubs who were keen to lure her back to the sport of football.
“Before I went to college [in the US] I was looking at playing WNBL around the time the AFLW first started. So, I was doing a bit of training in Canberra with some coaches from GWS [Greater Western Sydney] because that was an option, I was looking at instead of going to America.”
Although she chose the US college path, it didn’t deter AFLW clubs from trying to sign her.
Every year, at the completion of her college seasons she would be asked to come back to Australia. So, when she returned here for good, club recruiting managers across the AFLW wasted no time in extending try-out offers to her.
“WE HEAR YOU’RE BACK…”
The first message she received was from the Adelaide Crows’ recruiting manager saying, “we hear you’re back in Australia, do you want to give footy a crack?” After verifying that this was indeed a legitimate offer, Jas jumped at the opportunity.
Pretty soon a long queue of clubs in Melbourne were also chasing her signature.
After checking out the facilities and doing some training with a couple of Melbourne clubs, Jasmine went down to Adelaide and quickly fell in love with the club.
“It was everything I thought it would be,” she told us.
Having not played footy for three years, Jasmine was classified as a rookie which afforded her the opportunity to choose her club, as opposed to the lottery of entering the draft.
“I kinda just fell in love with the Adelaide Crows when I first got here and met everyone. And then there is the Broken Hill connection with Tex Walker. He took me out for lunch, and we had a chat about his experience with the Crows and I was pretty convinced. Erin Phillips also sat down and had a conversation with me too, and I was like yep, I am sold.”
On top of the winning culture that exists at the Adelaide Crows AFLW side, it was the prospect of developing her game and getting better that made the South Australian club the most attractive option for her.
“I love getting better as a player and a person. I probably valued, at the time, development and actually growing as opposed to jumping in headfirst and playing week in week out. There’s no way I would have developed as a player and a person if I played anywhere other than here [at the Crows].”
Jasmine has played eight matches for Adelaide and dreams of winning a flag with her team.
She also has kept one eye on her basketball dream and admits that at some point she will probably have to choose between the two. But not right now. As a matter of fact, she is kind of enjoying the best of both worlds at the moment.
“I was lucky enough to play with West Adelaide bearcats in the NBL1 and we ended up winning the NBL1 championship this season. The Crows were awesome in allowing me play until the end of that campaign, because it ended after footy season started. Until I have to make that decision [between footy and basketball], I think I will continue to do both.”
The uber-talented, multi-sports superstar still has family in Broken Hill. Her Nan and Pop along with her aunty and a few cousins still call the Silver City home, and of course there are school friends too.
But with her hectic schedule, she hasn’t made it down for a visit in a while.
“They come up here in Adelaide more than I get to go down there to Broken Hill.”
That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a soft spot for the Hill. The former Morgan Street Primary School and Willyama High School student insisted on giving a shout out to Mr and Mrs Doherty, describing them as her “favourite people ever.”
At just 23 years of age the Silver City’s own Jasmine Simmons has already built an impressive resume in the sporting world, and she is nowhere near finished.
