#6 Jasmine Ferguson: Undefeated

Meet Port Mac local Jasmine Ferguson (Jas), future ParaMatilda. 

When she was born, Doctors said that Jas would never walk or talk. Now she's training with the CommBank ParaMatildas, the national women's football team for athletes with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, or symptoms resulting from stroke. She's also a role model for girls in sport, people with disability, and indigenous athletes. 

In today's episode we talk about cerebral palsy, low vision, football and para sports, and why Jas says that her disability is "the best thing that ever happened."

Also, Sam Kerr, if you're listening, let's have dinner...!



Deadly Science: https://deadlyscience.org.au/

Donate to the ParaMatildas: https://asf.org.au/donate/football-australia/the-paramatildas-national-football-team

Transcripts available for each episode on the website: https://enabled.buzzsprout.com

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This episode is brought to you by Ability Advocators:
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Transcript

Kirsty: Hello everybody and welcome to Enabled, the podcast where we talk about, normalise and celebrate disability and mental health. Colin Lowe.

Colin: Hey, Kirsty. 

Kirsty: We have someone pretty special in this studio with us today. 

Colin: Thanks, Kirsty. That's nice of you to say that about me. 

Kirsty: Oh, absolutely. I'm talking about you, Colin.

Colin: Yeah. 

Kirsty: Colin is here and also someone else who is on a pretty exciting trajectory. If you haven't heard of her yet, you're going to want to remember this name, remember this moment because - no pressure Jas - but this young lady is a bit of a legend in the making. So, ladies and gentlemen, Jasmine Ferguson. 

Jasmine: Hey guys.

Kirsty: Hey Jas! Jas who's had some coffee today as well. We're all on how many, let's just declare it now. How many coffees has everyone had? I'm on one and that's too many for me already. Colin? 

Colin: One. One. Only one. 

Kirsty: Good for you. 

Jasmine: One. 

Kirsty: One, Jas. 

Bec: I'm sorry. I'm on number three. 

Kirsty: Number three!

Bec: I'm sorry, not sorry. 

Kirsty: Also, let's also introduce -  Jas, who did you bring with you today? 

Jasmine: I brought Bec. 

Kirsty: You brought Bec? 

Jasmine: Who's my mother. 

Kirsty: Your mum. 

Jasmine: No, my mum. Mum is amazing. 

Bec: Aw, I'll pay you later. Jassie. 

Jasmine: You don't have to pay me. 

Bec: Oh, serious? Oh, we got that down. 

Kirsty: Hey, nice, excellent. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and also what's been happening for you in the last couple of months?

Jasmine: So I'm Jas. Everybody knows that. I'm a para athlete. I have CP, epilepsy and CVI, which is low vision. 

Kirsty: Ah, what's so you, what did you call it? What were the letters that you used? CVI. What does that stand for? 

Jasmine: So cortical vision impairment. Is that right? 

Bec: Now you're making me think. 

Kirsty: It sounds right. It sounds- 

Bec: Yeah we're going to roll with that. 

Kirsty: Yeah, let's do it. 

Colin: Good.

Jasmine: And yeah, I'm training with the ParaMatildas. 

Kirsty: So ParaMatildas being the National Women's Soccer Team for athletes with CP or Cerebral Palsy, acquired brain injury or symptoms resulting from stroke. That's a, that's a big deal. Jas. 

Jasmine: It's a very big deal.

Kirsty: How does, let's talk about this to start off with, so you said CP and Low Vision, or CVI, you said? Yeah. Cortical vision impairment. Can we talk about those things? Are you happy to kind of dig into that for a bit?

Jasmine: Yeah, I'm happy. Love talking about it. 

Kirsty: Awesome. So CVI, can you sort of describe to us what that means for you?

Like what can you actually see? 

Jasmine: It's a scattered vision. So I can't see out, I don't know how you explain that. 

Kirsty: Like your peripheral vision, like to the sides, you don't have peripheral vision?

Jasmine: Yeah, I don't have, I can't say it properly. Peripher- vision. 

Colin: Good enough. I, I can understand that. 

Kirsty: That'll work. Yeah. Cool. What else? 

Jasmine: And in the middle it's scattered. 

Kirsty: So what do you mean by scattered? As in like, you can't, like what you see is always different. Is that what that means or? 

Jasmine: Similar. 

Bec: It's a bit blotchy, I guess you could say. 

Kirsty: Okay. Yeah. So, so if you were to stand on a football field and say, Georgia Beikoff, or, I don't know, Sam Kerr, for example, kicks you the ball, what are you seeing and what are you not seeing?

Jasmine: I can see they're kicking it to me, but I can't, I miss the middle. And then, yeah.

Kirsty: So, so you see them kick it, but then it disappears and then reappears. 

Jasmine: Yeah. 

Kirsty: Which that to me makes soccer seem like an extreme sport. Like at any point you could get hit in the face with the ball, without warning. 

Jasmine: Yeah.

Kirsty: That's insane. And because there's a difference isn't there, between blind football and CP football. Is that right? Yeah. And so in blind football, my understanding is that the ball is audible. Like there's something in the ball that it makes a sound. And so you can tell by the direction of the sound, more or less where the ball is. But they don't do that for you with the ParaMatildas, do they? 

Jasmine: No. 

Kirsty: That -  I think that's rough. 

Jasmine: It is, but it just makes me more determined. 

Kirsty: Good for you. So the ball is not audible in CP football. When you're playing with the ParaMatildas, you can't hear the ball. How do you know where it is then?

Jasmine: We communicate.

Kirsty: All right. So what does that mean? Like they are calling out to you and saying, "Jas the ball's coming to you"?

Jasmine: Most of the time.

Kirsty: What do you mean most of the time? 

Jasmine: Well, I was like, I remember being at last camp and I must, I was meant to pass the ball to Georgia.

And like, they're like looking at me going like, you’ve got to pass it over here. And I passed it the wrong way. 

Kirsty: And is that what, like why did that happen? Because you didn't. 

Jasmine: Cause it was out my peripheral vision. 

Kirsty: Right. And so you didn't know where Georgia Beikoff was? 

Jasmine: No. 

Kirsty: So you just passed it to no one or to somebody else?

Jasmine: No one. 

Kirsty: To no one, fun.

Colin: I think that's a part of any sort of sport. You’ve got to learn to know where people are going to be anyway and learn for the calls. I mean, even I've coached soccer, outfield soccer before, and talking to the team is so important. If you can get a team that talks you're way, way in front.

Kirsty: I feel like I can't always tell straight away the direction that a sound is coming from, but you have to recognise the direction of a sound basically instantaneously, or you might get hit in the face with a ball or worse, I guess, for an athlete, like let your team down. Does that translate into everyday life? Do you have like an amazing sense of hearing? 

Jasmine: I do. I can hear things from mum's bedroom. 

Kirsty: Oh, wow. 

Colin: That's way too much. 

Bec: That's me on the phone. I would just want to add

Kirsty: Oh, sure. Yeah.

Bec: Yeah. No, no, no. I just want to clarify.. I was on the phone and Jas was trying to get to sleep and it was the reversal of mother/daughter. Jas was at my door going, I think you need to quieten down. Oh, how embarrassing. I can just get a shovel and dig a hole. 

Kirsty: Are you single Bec? 

Bec: No, I am not single at the moment. I mean, no, hang on. 

Jasmine: Can I please say something?

Kirsty: Go for it, Jas. 

Jasmine: So she's got a boyfriend. His name's Simon.

Bec: yes. Let's shout out to Simon. 

Kirsty: Hey Simon. 

Colin: Hey Simon. 

Jasmine: They make the cutest couple. 

Kirsty: Aw, good. That's so nice. That's lovely. Good for, you've got like the support of your kids. That's amazing.

Colin: That's right.

Bec: No, I'm definitely not single.

Kirsty: Definitely. There you go Simon.

Bec: Yeah- 

Kirsty: definitely not single. 

Bec: I just want to clarify that. 

Kirsty: Wonderful. All right. What we have established from that very fun conversation is that you do have a great sense of hearing Jas. This is a dumb question, but I keep thinking about this.

Are you amazing at pinatas? Bec is nodding her head like crazy. Are you? 

Bec: Yes. Hey, what about an arm wrestle? 

Jasmine: Oh, I'm very good at arm wrestling. 

Kirsty: Are you? I kind of want to do one right now, except I will lose horrendously. 

Jasmine: Oh no. I'm not doing it. 

Bec: The strength is in Jas’s left side, so I don't know if people have an understanding of cerebral palsy. Jas has had two bleeds on the brain.

Jasmine: I had the stroke on the left side. So it went the opposite. So it's affected on the right side. 

Kirsty: Oh, because is that how the brain works? Like your left side handles the right. 

Colin: I think that's how that works. Yeah. 

Kirsty: Yeah. Cool. How old were you when you, when that happened? 

Jasmine: I was, I was a newborn.

Bec: Yeah. You weren't actually born. 

Kirsty: Oh, so they were in-utero strokes. And is, is this, in terms of how cerebral palsy is caused, it is frequently sort of an in utero sort of trauma. Is that right?

Bec: It can be when, when they're being born. Can be after. Yeah. So they tried to turn Jas. She was breech. She didn't want to come out. 

Kirsty: Oh, stubborn. 

Bec: And they didn't-. Yeah. She, yeah. 

Jasmine: I'm very stubborn. 

Bec: Very stubborn. And yeah, there wasn't enough fluid, so, yeah. We've had a cut off of oxygen for, which caused two strokes. 

Kirsty: And did they pick that up straight away when she was born? 

Jasmine: I don't think I did. I think mum did. Actually. 

Bec: You didn't, Jas?

Jasmine: I think, not. 

Bec: You could have told me. 

Kirsty: Jas came out advocating. She was like this is what I need. Here’s my rider. 

Bec: She has her own flag. Yep, yep. No, it was probably three months old. I got some photos back and I'm like, oh, look at her. She's cross-eyed. How cute. You know, because the love you have for your child when they're born is just, you just see they're amazing and beautiful and the love you have for them.

So, yeah, I kept going through the photos and I'm like, wow, she's cross-eyed in all of these. And I kind of had to have a good look at her and I'm like, you are cross eyed Jas. And that was the first thing that I kind of noticed. And then as she got a little bit older she wasn't using that right side and yeah, it was just a trip to the doctors.

They thought she had a brachial plexus, which, you know, she was born by a caesarean. So they thought they'd ripped the ligaments and the muscles. 

Kirsty: Oh heck. 

Bec: And then we were straight into physio and until we seen a neurologist who basically... 

Jasmine: Said that I couldn't walk or talk. Yeah. Just going to be in a wheelchair.

Kirsty: This is what they predicted for you? When you were a baby. 

Jasmine: I proved them all wrong. 

Kirsty: You did. Good for you.

Bec: Like from her MRIs to the, you know, the physical person that she presents. It's two different, yeah, two different things. 

Kirsty: So let's just talk about CP for a moment. So it's the most common physical disability in childhood. And I think something like a child is born with CP every 20, 15 or 20 hours in Australia.

What was that moment like for you back when you were told your baby has cerebral palsy, she's not going to walk, she's not going to talk, she's going to be in a wheelchair. Talk us through. What that experience was like for you? 

Bec: I was actually very thankful because I knew that something wasn't right and now I could deal with it.

Yeah. I mean, you can take it two ways. You can take it as in, wow, this is crap. This is not good. Or you can say, okay, now I've got a diagnosis. Yeah. Now I know what I've got to do to, you know, give her a good quality of life and, and do everything I can to get her where she needs to be. So yeah, you've always got choices and.

It’s what you do with them, I think.

Kirsty: Yeah. Of course 

Jasmine: It’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. 

Kirsty: Yeah. Talk to me about that Jas. Why do you say it's the best thing that ever happened to you? 

Jasmine: Well, I wouldn't have met these amazing people without it. 

Bec: Who are these amazing people?

Jasmine: Oh. Cathy Freeman. 

Bec: Hey, I thought you were talking about Colin and Kirsty, here, sorry Jas. 

Kirsty: That was such an opportunity, Jas. You know what I understand Cathy coming before us. 

Colin: Yeah, I do. 

Bec: She looks better in her little onesie. 

Kirsty: Well, you haven't seen us in our onesies, Bec. 

Bec: That's true. That is a challenge.

Colin: My wife doesn't like it.

Kirsty: Do you have a onesie?

Colin: Yeah, it's a storm trooper onesie. 

Kirsty: Oh, that's way too much information for everybody. Okay, let's get back on track. Let's talk about the ParaMatildas. 

Bec: Yeah, that would be white, yeah?

Colin: It's white. 

Bec: Yep. Okay, next.

Kirsty: Oh heck. Let's talk about the ParaMatildas. 

Jasmine: Why are we getting off? So not on subject?

Kirsty: It's the coffee guys. It's coffee. 

Colin: I don't know what's going on. Jas. 

Bec: Shout out to the local coffee man. 

Kirsty: Yes. Well, where do you guys go? Let's shout out. Where do you guys go? 

Bec: You didn't, you didn't actually go to a place, you followed your barista to wherever he worked. 

Kirsty: Do you have a preferred barista?

Jasmine: Yes. 

Kirsty: Yes. That's like next level coffee. Yeah. It's like saying it's not this place that I go to. It's this- because everyone's different. Is it, you talk about a cafe that you've been to that it must be this barista. Otherwise the coffee is not as good.

Colin: That's right. 

Kirsty: Yeah. Let's talk about the ParaMatildas because this is incredibly cool Jas. Can you, can you tell us how you came to be asked to train with the ParaMatildas? 

Jasmine: So Kelly, the head coach Australia, selected me for the training camp. 

Kirsty: That is so cool. 

Colin: Yeah.

Kirsty: Kelly Stirton, the head coach of the ParaMatildas, said, Jasmine Ferguson, I want you at my training camps.

Jasmine: Yeah. 

Kirsty: That must have been like, that must have been an ego boost. 

Jasmine: Yeah. She's cool.

Colin: So you are, you are still training with them with the potential .. When are they, when is those next group of games? 

Kirsty: Yeah. What are you training for? 

Jasmine: Well, we've got the Asian Cup in this year. So it's in November.

Kirsty: Amazing.

Colin: And where's that? 

Bec: It's in Melbourne and it's on the 31st to the 12th of November, 2023. 

Colin: There you go. 

Kirsty: And the Para Asian Cup is a big deal. Why? 

Jasmine: Because it's actually the first Para Asian cup. 

Kirsty: Yeah. The first women's Para Asian cup. And so, by extension, I suppose, the first time also that the men's and women's events have been held at the same time. And… 

Jasmine: it's in Australia, maybe you can come 

Bec: Latrobe university in Melbourne. 

Kirsty: Say it loud so my boss can hear you. Maybe we can come. 

Colin: So the ParaRoos is the men's team? Yep. Do you train with them at all? Do you see them? 

Kirsty: Nah, what's the point? 

Bec: Who needs a man? All righty. 

Kirsty: Yes. Exactly. But also, also let's just establish this for a second. Jas. Do you know what number in the world are the ParaMatildas?

Jasmine: Hopefully it's number one.

Kirsty: They are the number one team in the world. So you've been training with the ParaMatildas. How many camps have you been on?

Jasmine: Two. 

Kirsty: Two camps. Here's the million dollar question we have to ask. Did you get in, do you know yet whether you'll be a part of the ParaMatildas? 

Bec: We actually don't know yet. 

Jasmine: No, they haven't actually picked the squad. 

Kirsty: They haven't. Do you know when that's happening? 

Bec: Even if we knew, we can't tell you at the moment. There has been no selections. 

Kirsty: Really? Blink twice if you know. Do you know? 

Bec: No, no, no. I was trying to stare. I was trying to stare. No, we don't know. Serious. And they have to actually sign confidentiality forms. 

Kirsty: It's like the Bachelor. It's like being on the Bachelor.

Colin: I wouldn't know. 

Kirsty: Colin is a huge Bachelor fan and-

Colin: I've never seen it in my life. 

Kirsty: He is, he loves it. He is like an OG. Like- 

Colin: You be careful because I know some secrets that I could just put on air. 

Kirsty: Okay. It's me. It's me. I love The Bachelor. 

Colin: Just be careful. Okay.

Kirsty: Do you, have you mentally prepared yourself for the possibility -  because that's part and parcel of being an athlete, isn't it? Sometimes you play, sometimes you're injured, like it's the up and the down, the highs and lows.

Have you mentally prepared yourself for the possibility that you might not get in? 

Jasmine: Yeah. 

Kirsty: And. How do you do that? How do you get prepared for, will you be super disappointed? What's your mental game for that?

Jasmine: I don't think I'll be disappointed. Like I'm only 17. I've got a long way to go. Yeah. And I'm like the young, one of the youngest.

Kirsty: So do you see yourself as inevitably a ParaMatilda in the future. 

Jasmine: Yeah. 

Colin: That's good. That's good.

Kirsty: I love that. 

Bec: And I mean, Jas trains hard. She does everything right to potentially get into this side. So if she does get into this side, she's totally earned the spot. But we've prepared you just in case. Cause you just never know. 

Colin: You do do a lot because I, I met Jas, I think at Futsal. With the all abilities social competition that's here in Port Macquarie. On a Thursday night that anyone can come along to come and join us. 4:30. It's quite fun at this, at the stadium. 

Bec: So it's fun to watch sometimes too.

Kirsty: Yeah, nice, and is there a link that we can put in our show notes or something if people are interested in, in that? 

Colin: There probably is. I'll- 

Kirsty: you can find some information.

Colin: I'll find some information. And if anyone wants to know anything more about the all Abilities Futsal. Port Macquarie, yeah. You can contact us.

You also have private coaching lessons from a friend of ours. Should we say his name, Jas? Do you think that's, shout out 

Jasmine: what's his name?

Bec: Poor old Brenton. 

Colin: Poor old Brenton. Anyway, but the Brenton Doyle Soccer Academy, which I've decided to call it. 

Kirsty: Is that what it's called or not? 

Colin: No. 

Kirsty: Okay. 

Bec: It is now. 

Colin: It is now.

Kirsty: There you go. Brenton Doyle soccer Academy. 

Colin: It should be the Brenton Doyle Soccer Academy. 

Bec: He's been amazing with Jas. 

Colin: Brenton says that if half his team's trained as hard as you do. He'd be a lot better off, or the teams will be a lot better off. 

Kirsty: Well let's, let's talk about like the level of commitment that it takes for you because you're training, you're training to compete not just for your country, but in the number one team in the world.

When did you decide that that was what you wanted to do and what does it look like for you to train for the ParaMatildas. 

Jasmine: Everybody’s looking at me!

Kirsty: You're the star Jas! This is your future. You're going to be like doing interviews like this constantly. 

Colin: And I've seen you on video. Yeah. Doing interviews and you're very good.

Jasmine: Thank you. Yeah. Okay. What was the question again? 

Kirsty: I don’t remember… So I want to talk about the level of commitment that it takes to be an elite athlete, which is what you are. So when did you decide that this is what you wanted? 

Jasmine: Well, when I was still in athletics, I was told by more than one people, I should go play soccer. So I listened to them. 

Kirsty: Yeah. Why did they think you should play soccer when you're doing athletics? 

Jasmine: I don't know. 

Kirsty: Ok. Mystery but- 

Jasmine: I don't know, like- 

Colin: Is it because you drift towards team sports and athletics is a very individual thing that's- 

Kirsty: Maybe they knew that you would be good in a team, you'd be good for the... Team spirit. Especially when you've had coffee. Bec did you see a point in time when you were like, Ooh, soccer is what we're doing now? 

Bec: Yeah, there was, there was a very clear point where I never thought Jas would ever, ever stop doing athletics. And she came to me one day and said, I don't want to do athletics anymore. And I was like, a good joke, Jas. Good joke. 

Jasmine: And I said it to the school because, I was meant to go to a competition. I didn't want to go to it. And they thought I was joking too. 

Bec: Because she was so talented and, and trained so hard for it. We kind of didn't believe Jas. And I was like, okay, this is just a bit of a phase.

Yeah. It's been your dream since you were about eight or nine? Yeah. It kind of went from I'm, I'm a bit lonely. I'm a bit lonely in training, I'm a bit, and she said, I just want to play soccer. And that was a turning point. It was a real cut in the line. It's like she'd thought about it. And then went, Hey, this is what I want to do.

Kirsty: And did you see once she started playing soccer, the love immediately there? 

Bec: Oh yeah, definitely. So athletics was very 

Jasmine: Serious. It was very- 

Bec: I've never seen Jas smile and have fun. Like she loved it. She loved training and we'd travel everywhere for it, but, When I first seen her play soccer as a, what? 15 year old.

She smiled. She was having fun. 

Kirsty: So you love, so athletics and that sort of thing, you love the skill of it, I suppose. And the pursuit of wanting to like push herself. Yep. And achieve goals. But your heart's in soccer. 

Bec: And it's nice to see her actually have fun where. Yeah, athletics was very serious for you.

Kirsty: Well, let's talk about, did you, so the training camps, were they fun? Like what was, what were the highlights of those for you? 

Jasmine: It was fun, but because it was a national team, yeah, they were very strict on us. If you swear in camp, you get asked to leave. If you, if you're late to a meeting. If you are late to lunch, breakfast, dinner, you don't get in. You’re treated exactly the same as the Matildas do.

Yeah. And Kelly's said to us that, I won't treat you any different to the Matildas do. 

Colin: I think it's just part of discipline. Yeah. You put rules in place and if- 

Jasmine: Oh, we, yeah.

Bec: I actually think it's a great thing that the para team are the, the same standard as the. 

Colin: You're the national team. 

Kirsty: Yep, absolutely. And do you get much time to sort of, is there much bonding time with the other players? Do you get to hang out? 

Jasmine: Yeah, we do. 

Kirsty: And what was it like for you to be able to spend that time and hang out and bond with people who, who have more or less the same sort of lived experience to you? Was that, was that pretty special?

Jasmine: Yeah, it was. I mean, they don't have the vision side. Yeah. So that's pretty hard. Yeah. But no, it's special. 

Bec: Yeah. You can see it, you all help each other out and it's, it's really nice. 

Jasmine: Yeah, like one of them would do my shoe lace, another one would be doing my hair. 

Kirsty: That's awesome. 

Bec: As mum and as a carer, that makes me really, my heart very full because I don't have to be there.

Colin: So what was it like for you, Bec, to let her go and, and be there without you there? 

Kirsty: Was that the first time? 

Bec: Yeah. Yeah. It was a massive thing, but. I had to deal with it because I know what she wants to do, what her goals are, and I know that this was a stepping stone. The first one in Sydney was a little bit easier than the AIS for some reason.

When we, when I left her at the AIS I kind of had a bit of a flashback moment of. You know, when, when she was diagnosed to all the therapy that we did and, and everything that happened, it was one of those, yeah, just those moments. And I mean, all the hard work that Jas has put in, like, I could take her to appointments, I can do, you know, all that sort of stuff, but she's put the hard work in.

She's done amazing things. 

Kirsty: Yeah. I mean, you can't get to this point, can you? You can't be an athlete and not have that level of discipline and that level of, that drive. 

Jasmine: I guess in athletics, we didn't have that in a multi class. They, they get treated differently. They don't. We get away with it in athletics. In soccer, we don't. 

Kirsty: Yeah. And you like that? 

Jasmine: Yeah. 

Kirsty: Yeah. So let's talk a bit more about like that drive and that mental game especially. We touched a little bit on the mental game before, but. These two training camps, you're competing with players like Georgia Beikoff and Rae Anderson, seasoned Paralympians who have been there, done that.

They really know their stuff. Georgia Beikoff, for example, she won the Golden Boot at the CP World Cup last year. Scored something like 13 goals in the whole competition. Pretty impressive. 

Bec: Yeah. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. 

Kirsty: Yeah, totally. And you are competing for a spot with, with people like that. Is that intimidating?

Jasmine: It is a little bit because I'm the youngest. 

Kirsty: How do you mentally prepare yourself to be competing against people twice your age? People who are, you know, really seasoned. Cathy Freeman, we're going to talk, talk about her in a, in a little while, but she had written on a poster on her bedroom wall  “I am the greatest athlete in the world.”

Jasmine: No, no. It was the, “I'm the world's greatest athlete.”

Bec: Sorry. Sorry. Back. Back. The truck up. 

Kirsty: I'm so sorry. 

Bec: Yep. I'd just like to say what Jas had on her wall. Yeah. Yeah, so it was “I want to be the fastest, was it oh something T 37, which was Jas's classification. Yeah. A hundred meter Sprinter. It was pretty much the 

same as Cathy's.

Kirsty: And was that inspired by Cathy that you did that? 

Jasmine: Yeah, she was my. First celebrity idol. 

Kirsty: So you've met Cathy Freeman. How did that come about? 

Jasmine: One of our amazing friends. Yes. Corey Tutt.

Kirsty: Corey Tutt. Shout out to Corey. 

Jasmine: Oh yeah, he's from Deadly Science.

Kirsty: Deadly Science. So Deadly Science is a, it's a local organisation and it was founded to encourage a love of STEM subjects, which is, I'm going to get this wrong, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Is that right? Good job. I'm pretty sure I'm rubbish at all- 

Jasmine: Do you need fairy claps for that?

Kirsty: Yeah, sure. Any kind of, yeah, I'm happy to take it. If you're going to give it, I'll take it. So Corey Tutt founded Deadly Science to encourage a love of STEM subjects, especially in Aboriginal kids, and to provide resources to remote and regional schools especially. Amazing. 

Bec: He's amazing. He's absolutely amazing. And he's just a nice guy. Legend. Which makes it even better. You can find his books at Bookface. 

Kirsty: Yes, we’ll link to it. We will link to his website where you can find his books. So Corey set you up with Cathy Freeman and.. 

Jasmine: Lydia Williams who was on the Today show this morning. 

Kirsty: she's so famous. She is. 

Jasmine: And I've got a video message off her, which is amazing.

Colin: And who is Lydia Williams, by the way? 

Jasmine: She is the Australian goalkeeper. For the Matildas. 

Colin: That's right. 

Kirsty: The first goalkeeper in the history of the Matildas to get one hundred caps for her country. So he's hooked you up with these guys, which is amazing. But they're obviously, I mean, incredible athletes, both of them, but female athletes and aboriginal athletes as well.

Yeah, so role models and trailblazers really. Is that something that you feel, do you feel like you are a role model? 

Jasmine: Yeah, I think so. Because not just being a disability person, but also being an indigenous woman. And yeah, I feel like I can inspire people. 

Kirsty: Absolutely. 

Colin: Because like I said, I have seen a couple of the interviews that you've done.

Yep. And you have spoken at schools, is that something that you'd like to do to get out and inspire people? Because I think you'd be fantastic at it. 

Jasmine: Yeah, for sure. No, but I just want to motivate people, get people out there. Disability, or not. 

Kirsty: Yeah, totally. 

Jasmine: You can do it.

Colin: Awesome. Yeah.

Bec: Yeah. You're a massive advocate, Jas.

Kirsty: Sarai Bareman, she's the Chief Officer for Women at FIFA, which is the International Football Federation, which by the way, has more member states than the United Nations like it's huge, and she has been called the most influential New Zealander in global sports.

Bec: Wow. 

Kirsty: So she’s kind of a big deal. But she has spoken about how we need to get to a point where it's totally normal to see women occupying important spaces in sport. And I, I think that we can add to that totally normal to see people with disability occupying important spaces. Totally normal to see indigenous people occupying important spaces.

Normal for people from these groups to just be visible and to hold power. But until that happens, I can only imagine that there is extra pressure on people like you Jas, because you're not just a role model, you're also kind of pioneering and you're breaking barriers. Do you feel the pressure of having to do that at all?

Jasmine: No. No, I'm just happy to do it. 

Kirsty: Nice. I like that. How do you go with, with pressure? Cathy Freeman talked about, I went back and watched her 400 meter sprint in the 2000 Olympics. And even though I knew how it ended, like the amount of pressure that was on her and she just thrived. She loved it. And I think Sam Kerr recently spoke about how she loves those high pressure moments.

Colin: She said that yesterday. Yes. 

Kirsty: Yeah. She loves those moments that can make or break your career, can change the game. How do you go under pressure? Do you, what's your relationship with pressure like? 

Jasmine: I mean, it's all right. Yeah. 

Bec: You do do a lot of mental preparation. 

Jasmine: I do, yeah.

Bec: It's really important. It's, you know, you don't just get out there and kick a ball or you don't just get out there and run a hundred meters. There's so much more to be an elite athlete Yeah. Than to just have a little bit of talent. 

Kirsty: What kind of things do you say to yourself?

Jasmine: I've done everything I can to prepare for this and I'm going to give it everything that I can. A hundred percent or maybe 200%. 

Bec: And I can, I can vouch for you Jas. You absolutely do give that. Yeah. 

Jasmine: And I will. 

Kirsty: Yep. I love that. 

Bec: Loves a challenge. Don't say you can't do something to Jas. 

Jasmine: I'll get mad at you.

Kirsty: And does that drive you? Like if somebody says, this isn't, this isn't in your future, does that make you go ‘watch me’? 

Bec: Yep. Oh, sorry, I shouldn't answer for you, but since you were like tiny, 

Jasmine: it makes me very determined. 

Kirsty: Yeah. Nice. And you've seen that, Bec, from the beginning. 

Bec: From the beginning. Yeah. It was definitely, you know, she wasn't supposed to walk or talk and 

Her first, I think three words were “I do myself”. Which was just like, oh, it was very emotional for me because I was like, well, you don't need me. 

Kirsty: Yeah. I feel like we can't really talk about. Football or women's football without talking about Sam Kerr, it's compulsory. Right. She's one of our greatest athletes.

She's the leading goal scorer of all time. Three out of four people in this room have a crush on her. Yep. 

Bec: Well, I, I said to Jas, what would you like to do for your birthday?

And she said, I'd like Sam Kerr to take me out for dinner. And I was like, wow, she's not even in the country. Jas.

Kirsty: She's now though.

Bec: So yeah, she's now, which she could, you know, Could be a belated birthday. 

Kirsty: Absolutely. Sam Kerr of you're listening. Jas Ferguson wants to have dinner with you. Yeah. Let's, let's set this up. 

Jasmine: But me and Cathy has more in common. 

Bec: Jas's Jas has loved Cathy forever because Cathy’s sister had cerebral palsy. Yeah. 

Jasmine: She said severe cerebral palsy. Yep. Yeah. And yeah, that's the reason why she ran. 

Kirsty: That's amazing. That's not something I knew about Cathy Freeman.

Jasmine: I'm teaching you stuff. 

Kirsty: You are, yeah. You're a, you're an educator 

Colin: Motivator. 

Bec: Cathy's mum used to say Jas. 

Jasmine: She used to say, Cathy, get out there. You got two good arms, two good legs. Go out there and use them. And I said to her, and she was a bit taken back. 

Bec: You said it to Cathy. Yeah. And you, and she was a bit taken back that something that motivated her also, motivates you. 

Kirsty: Aw, that's nice. 

Jasmine: I said to her, you know, you inspire me. And she goes, Jas, you inspire me. Mm. And I think, I think, I won't forget that. 

Kirsty: Was that like a, a highlight for you of, of everything so far? Yeah. Let's talk about girls in sport for a moment, because. It's kind of huge that the ParaMatildas even exist.

18 months ago, they didn't exist and they are now the first new senior national Australian football team to be created in 22 years. The Pararoos, who are the male equivalent, they've been around since 1998, which blows my mind, but the ParaMatildas launched in March last year, March, 2022. Under the slogan, It's Time for Equal Play.

Bec: Goosebumps. Yes. Yeah. 

Kirsty: How important has it been to you, Jas, and how much has, has it changed your life to have the opportunity to play sport?

Jasmine: It's an honour. My happy place is sport, so sport is my number one. 

Kirsty: And was that, I mean, have there been a lot of opportunities for you to do that or were opportunities for para sport fairly thin on the ground? 

Bec: We actually didn't know about them until probably year three. And Jas was at a sports carnival and she was running a hundred meters and the smile on her face was just absolutely, yeah.

Yeah. If you know Jas, you'll know the smile. And it wasn't until the, Principal had come over and said, you know, there's a pathway for para athletes. And I'm like, para athletes, what are you talking about? Yeah. You know, we're just having fun at the local sports carnival. And it wasn't until she said, well, my sister has cerebral palsy.

And she kind of got us started. And from then, it hasn't been easy because you know, it's, the more people you talk to, the more links you get. It should be a bit more. Open, I guess. Yeah. 

Jasmine: I would think I'll be playing sport without her like saying that. No. Yeah. So she is incredible. 

Kirsty: Yeah. Amazing to look back and see like the life-changing moments.

Yeah. And the stars that aligned to sort of get you where you are. 

Jasmine: Hope she's been listening to this. What was her name? Her name was Mrs. Burn. Definitely. 

Kirsty: This is the power of good teachers. 

Is there a team slogan for the ParaMatildas?

Like because isn't it for the Matildas, it's Never Say Die or something like that. Is there something like that for the ParaMatildas? 

Jasmine: Undefeated.

Kirsty: Undefeated? I like it. Jasmine Ferguson, undefeated. 

Colin: Undefeated.

Kirsty: There you go. And we should say, before we wrap up, you can actually make a donation to the ParaMatildas to help support their journey to the Para Asian Cup.

And we will link in the show notes to the website that you can do that through. It's all tax deductible. And, listeners, if you'd like to email my boss to convince her that a trip to Melbourne in November to watch Jas maybe and the Para Asian Cup is a legitimate work expense for me and Colin, please do that podcast@dvocators.com.au

Colin: I'll be happy with that. 

Kirsty: Well, thanks for coming in guys. Thanks for tuning in to everyone who is listening, and we will see you next time on Enabled. 

Colin: See you. 

Bec: Bye. 

Jasmine: Goodbye.