Hard as it was for Brad Jeffries to give up a good paycheck, it was even harder to give up a dream.
And so three years after walking away from basketball, he decided it was time to give the game another shot. Even though it meant walking away from a comfortable job with a generous income.
“It was definitely a difficult decision,” said Jeffries, a 2008 graduate of Snohomish High School and a freshman at Mount Vernon’s Skagit Valley College. “I was making pretty good money for somebody my age. I was also getting health benefits, and I’d just bought a new car.
“But at the same time I never wanted to have any regrets in my life. And I want to take basketball as far as I possibly can because I definitely love the game.”
As a senior at Snohomish, Jeffries averaged about eight points and seven rebounds a game. Modest statistics, yes, but being 6 feet, 8 inches, he still drew the attention of college recruiters, mostly at the community college level.
But if the coaches had interest, Jeffries did not. Suffering from basketball burnout, “I just wanted to take a break from the game,” he said. “I wasn’t necessarily saying that I didn’t want to play anymore, but I wanted to re-evaluate the situation. And so I decided to go to work.”
He ended up being hired as a customer service representative by the Puget Sound-area health insurance company Premera Blue Cross, and he was in line for a promotion to a sales position. He was still playing basketball, but only in men’s leagues and pickup games.
But that changed a year ago when he went to watch a high school teammate, Zach Wilde, play for Hawaii Hilo in a game against St. Martin’s in Lacey. Seeing his friend play “made me fall in love with the game again,” Jeffries said. “I wanted to play really, really bad.”
Last spring he began contacting schools, including Skagit Valley because of his earlier acquaintance with Cardinals head coach Roger Valentine. The two men got together to discuss a possible return, and it was obvious to Valentine “that (Jeffries) still had the fire and the desire to play. And he realized that time was ticking.”
In the ensuing months, the 22-year-old Jeffries quit his job, moved to Mount Vernon and prepared to become a student again. And on Friday night he will resume his basketball career when the Cardinals tip off their season by hosting the eight-team, three-day Skagit Valley College Turkey Tournament.
“It just feels amazing to be back on the court again,” Jeffries said. “It’s definitely surreal. When I knew I was coming to Skagit, I was thinking that I hadn’t been through a practice in years. But when I got out there, it felt like I’d never left. It just felt right.”
In his years away from organized basketball, he added weight, strength and agility. He has also polished certain areas of his game, particularly at the offensive end.
“With him being a little older, that’s definitely been a plus for him,” Valentine said. “I don’t think Brad necessarily would have been a starter for us right out of high school. He would have played as a freshman, but most of his time probably would have come as a sophomore. … But I think he’s going to be a starter for us (this season).
“Our selling point to Brad is that I think he can play beyond us. We’re looking at him playing for us just one year and then maybe moving on to a four-year school.”
“With hard work and determination,” Jeffries said, “I believe I can potentially play for a small (NCAA) Division I school or maybe a high Division II school.”
And as much as he is thrilled to be playing basketball again, Jeffries is similarly focused on his academic ambitions. He expects to pursue a business degree.
“These days,” he said, “if you don’t have a college education in the real world and in a corporate environment, you’re at a significant disadvantage. So getting an education is my first priority. But the chance to play basketball and go to school has definitely been a dream of mine since I was young.
“So I know I made the right decision. I’m getting a good education, I’m getting a little help with school, and I’m getting to play the sport I love. Most definitely, this was the right decision for me.”
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