White Fern Jess Kerr savours unexpected career

In her final year of high school, White Fern Jess Kerr was given a lifeline to a second sporting life that she never saw coming.

Kerr's dream was to go to the Olympics as a runner.

She was seriously good at it too. Articles were written about this kid from Tawa, who was breaking age group records.

But by the time she reached her last year at Tawa College, she couldn't run more than five minutes without being in agony.

The 24-year-old has had to deal with a number of medical issues but a condition in her legs ultimately made a running career untenable.

She was starting to grieve the loss of that dream when a great bowling performance in a college final caught selectors' eyes.

At that stage, Kerr's younger sister Amelia had already made headlines for debuting for the Wellington Blaze when she was just 14 and looked destined for the White Ferns.

Jess Kerr looked up the Wellington Cricket website to see who had been named in the wider Blaze squad for that season.

"Melie was obviously in the team so I was just looking at the website, just to see who else had made the squad and then I saw my name and I got a bit of a shock, I hadn't even thought I was in the running," Kerr said.

Up until that point, Kerr hadn't been that serious about cricket. All of a sudden the 17-year-old started training with top class players.

"The Blaze has a lot of White Ferns so it meant I had to be on point really all the time at training, you know bowling to the likes of Rachel Priest, Sophie Devine and Liz Perry."

The timing was crucial - Kerr may well have given up cricket once she left college.

"It could have looked that way, who knows because my calves were pretty bad too. I'm just grateful that it happened when it did, even though I didn't play that first season, the determination to play the year after for the Blaze was there."

When Kerr looks back, she is thankful she played more than just one sport growing up.

"As a kid, I didn't absolutely love cricket but I enjoyed it enough to never fully give up and I had some really good role models around me with Dad [Robbie Kerr played for Wellington] and my Grandad [Bruce Murray] playing for New Zealand and also my sister.

"So I was always playing, whether it was backyard cricket or indoor or for my college. It meant I could keep my skills up and when I randomly made the Blaze squad that was just the little push I needed to then take it more seriously."

Kerr hasn't looked back. She made her White Ferns debut in early 2020 and has become a key part of the bowling attack with her ability to swing the ball.

It almost feels like Kerr burst onto the scene but there is more to it than that.

She did not go full throttle with cricket until she was older, because her early passion was running and health issues or injury kept putting her out of action.

She believes the discipline she got from competing in running set her up well.

"I think that base of hard work and training every day with running has really helped with now being a contracted White Fern and the last two years I've been teaching full-time so I have to be really organised.

"The motivation is even higher now being surrounded by all these professional athletes is just really inspiring."

Setbacks

To say Kerr has had her share of medical issues is an under-statement.

When she was nine, she was diagnosed with Bell's-palsy, a rare condition that results in one half of the face drooping.

Kerr could neither blink nor drink out of a cup, and her smile would not go up on one side.

Her main concern was whether she could play sport that weekend.

"Half of my face was paralysed, I had an eye-patch on, and I still played football that weekend and ended up scoring the most goals I ever had."

Most people make a full recovery within a year, but not Kerr.

There were improvements and she was able to drop the eye patch but she still finds it hard to fall asleep some nights trying to get her eyes closed.

Kerr said she was not insecure about having Bell's palsy, but did feel a little self conscious when she had her photo taken with people who did not know about her condition.

Kerr said her family never made her feel any different and she was lucky to have friendships with people who liked her for who she was.

When Kerr was 13, she lost an alarming amount of weight and would get up five times in the night to go to the bathroom.

After a few tests, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

By now, running was her life and she burst into tears on hearing those words. The year before, she had won the 800m and 1500m in her age group at the South Island Colgate Games.

Kerr had to take a whole term off school, and ended up losing her vision for about a week. It threw her out of sport for a long time.

Once she got the diabetes under control, Kerr started running again. She had to inject herself with insulin about seven times a day.

Kerr learnt how to manage the diabetes and the following year she ran a Wellington age-group 3km track record.

It is a bit easier for Kerr to manage her condition these days.

"Now I've got an insulin pump, which is attached on me essentially all the time, except when I am training. Now I only do one injection a day.

"You still need to try and make sure your levels are right constantly. Prior to and straight after training, I'll be looking at my levels and there's days where it's not perfect."

She said it helped that her White Ferns' captain Sophie Devine had the same condition.

"It's nice having someone else who just gets the lingo of it and understands what it feels like when you are low. You know you're not just being soft and needing a break.

"Hopefully, young kids who are diagnosed with diabetes can see that you can still play sport and they won't give up on what they love doing, if that is sport."

One door closes ...

Kerr was 16 when her calves started hurting every time she ran.

At that point, she was doing middle distance running and her training included runs as long as 90 minutes.

She was eventually diagnosed with compartment syndrome in her legs and had surgery.

After months of rest and rehab, she tried returning to the track but the surgery had not worked.

"I'm not one to give up on things easily so I would keep training and try my best and often sessions would end with me in agony or me being in tears.

"By then I was playing a bit more cricket and I saw the opportunities coming for cricket and I realised the pain and heartache of what I was going through with running just wasn't worth it anymore."

She made the Blaze squad for a second year but ended up getting diagnosed with Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome.

"The compartment syndrome is at the front of my legs and they say it's like shin splints but in the muscle. The Popliteal was more in the back and to do with the arteries and the blood flow not going through when you exercise, which is what creates the pain."

To try to alleviate the discomfort, Kerr ended up getting botox in her legs from a specialist in Australia to help get the blood flow going.

It was successful in that she could continue to play cricket.

In 2020, she got a second dose of botox while on tour with the White Ferns to Australia, which has helped significantly.

"I was finally able to run 30 minutes pain free last year for the first time in about seven years so that was quite a nice moment for me after so long."

Kerr has been told she qualifies for surgery but she is not going down that route just yet.

"It's about six to nine months of rehab. I said no in the end because with the home world cup coming up I didn't want to miss out on losing about six months of training and who knows if it would work.

"I can still play cricket and my trainers are good with adapting my sessions if I am sore."

Another door opens ...

Despite a back injury taking her out of the majority of the pre-season, Kerr became the top wicket taker in the 2019/20 Super Smash competition.

Her form saw her selected for the White Ferns and she made her debut in January 2020.

Kerr was overwhelmed when her cricketing dream came true and did not expect to make the White Ferns that soon.

It was a special moment for Kerr when she was named in the White Ferns World Cup squad last week along with her sister.

"In 2017, I actually went to the 50 over World Cup in England with my parents to watch Melie and that was a moment when I thought 'this is pretty cool what she's doing and could I do that myself if I started working a bit harder?'

"So to play at the next World Cup is pretty special."

Kerr was just a toddler when the White Ferns won the world cup on home soil in 2000.

"It's cool to hear the older players in the White Ferns say that's the reason they actually started playing cricket and why they picked up a bat because they saw that home world cup.

"If kids can see people representing their country and hopefully winning a world cup in their own back yard hopefully that means a few girls and boys will pick up cricket, which has created so many great memories for me and hopefully for them too."

Later this year, Kerr has a chance to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games, with women's cricket making its debut at the multi-sport event.

"It would be unreal. I always dreamed of experiencing an athletes' village. To be able to have that for cricket and be able to go into a hub and be around other athletes is really exciting.

"I haven't thought about it too much because there is this home world cup first but it's definitely a goal of mine to be in that squad to travel to England for the Commonwealth Games."

Despite all her setbacks, the resilient Kerr always remained positive and said her family taught her to be grateful for what you can do rather than what you cannot.

Kerr said there was nothing better than being able to represent New Zealand alongside her sister Amelia.

"She's a big reason why I got back into cricket and I spent a couple of years watching her performing in the Blaze and then the White Ferns.

"Our favourite moment is when we get to sing the national anthem next to each other and then take the field together, yeah, you can't take that for granted ever."