SHE'S studying medicine to help people, but Wagga Blaze player Hannah Ryan has her fingers crossed she won't be needed on the coronavirus front line.
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However, she hopes her services will be required on a basketball court sooner rather than later as the Blaze await word on whether they'll get to defend their Waratah League division one championship.
Ryan is currently studying a Doctor of Medicine through University of NSW, and is in the final year of a two-year placement at Wagga Base Hospital.
The 24-year-old said the hospital has trained them to be ready to assist in case the pandemic worsens, but so far the Riverina has been one of the more fortunate regions.
"They've prepared us just in case, we're doing some additional classes we would normally do toward the end of the year," she said.
"We've been trained to be ready for the worst, but thankfully so far we haven't been needed. They started preparing us to step up and assist in the hospital in a higher threshold before we graduate, if need be.
"Wagga prepares us incredibly well and we have strong clinical experiences already. We would be assistants to the actual doctors but I think most of us who signed up to do medicine in the first place are always really eager to help in any way we can."
Ryan is one of a handful of Blaze players involved in medical fields. Summa Stephens is community care manager at the Murrumbidgee Local Health District, Stephanie Male is a radiographer and Caren Hugo works at a pharmacy.
Imposing centre Ryan played a pivotal role in helping Wagga Blake to back-to-back Waratah League division one championships last year, their third title the past four seasons.
Given the competition fields just nine teams and doesn't have a lengthy fixture, Ryan is hopeful restrictions will ease in time for a season to be played.
The competition has been expanded with Illawarra set to field a team should a season get off the ground.
"It would be nice to get some of the season in. It would just be great to train, it's such a great social outlet," she said.
"There's a possibility if you condense it and play a few double headers, you could play every team. But I think for most people who commit to country basketball it's about the enjoyment of the sport, most teams across the state would be rapt just to be given the opportunity to play.
"Even some of the junior players coming to training, whether they suit up for the state league or not there's a lot of talent coming through which is really exciting to see."
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