Fires: Olsen Proves You Can Get There From Here

Have you ever stopped to ask for directions and some wise guy says, "You can't get there from here?"

Jessica Olson of Springdale had to wonder if that statement were true last month while completing a very long trip.

How's this for an itinerary? Board a plane in Kansas City, fly to Chicago. Leave Chicago, fly to Los Angeles. Leave Los Angeles, fly to Hawaii. Leave Hawaii, fly to the Republic of Marshall Islands. Leave the Marshall Islands, fly to Pohnpei, a tiny island nation 13,000 miles and several time zones away from Springdale, where Olson lives.

"The Marshall Islands are 17 hours away and I still had a two-hour flight to Pohnpei," said Olson, who graduated from Springdale Har-Ber in 2012. "I was pretty exhausted when I finally got there. Then, we had practices twice a day at 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. It wasn't easy at first."

Olson, 19, made the long-distance trip after being invited to play basketball for the Republic of Marshall Islands in the Micronesia Games July 21-29. The games are similar to the Summer Olympics and involves island nations in the South Pacific competing against each other in a number of sports.

Olson, who was born in the Marshall Islands, moved with her family to Springdale when she was in the second grade. Springdale is home to one of the largest population of Marshallese in the United States. The Marshallese Olympic committee paid for all of Olson's travel. The money she spent was mostly for eating out and buying souvenirs.

"That was the first time I'd been back since I was little," said Olson, whose mother, Kemram, works in the Language Department at Springdale Har-Ber. "It was a lot smaller than I remember it."

Olson played guard and returned home with a silver medal after helping the Marshall Islands to a second-place finished in basketball. Olson (5-foot-4) had 18 points in a 77-45 loss to Guam in the championship game.

"It was a big deal when we got back to Majuro, which is the capital city in the Marshall Islands," Olson said. "The airport was packed and it was kind of like a block party. We didn't think of ourselves as big-time athletes, but that was really cool the way the people came out to greet us. People were really happy."

Olson was a popular player at Springdale Har-Ber and her appearance on the team spurred interest from the Marshallese community in local sports. Olson continued her basketball career at Kansas Wesleyan, where she started every game as a freshman. But she left after one year and is now taking classes at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.

"It was really expensive in Kansas, and I wanted to move closer to my family," said Olson, whose father, Richard, met his future wife while he was in the United States Navy. "Plus, I'd like to be an athletic trainer and they really didn't have that kind of program."

Olson hopes to transfer in January to Arkansas, where her brother, Orben, is a senior. In the meantime, she'll continue to work toward her degree and savor the two weeks she spent in the South Pacific representing her native country.

"The trip was amazing and exceeded my expectations," Olson said. "It wasn't just the basketball aspect of it, either. I got to see family I haven't seen in a long time and made some lifelong friendships.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat."

Even at 13,000 miles and several time zones away.

RICK FIRES IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR NWA NEWSPAPERS

Sports on 08/17/2014

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