Stanford guard Jamie Carey always knew she’d grow up to play basketball in the Cardinal uniform.
Unfortunately, she never knew the tragic end that her career would have.
Carey suffered a concussion on Oct. 19 that doctors say caused minor brain damage. Fearing that another hit — even a slight blow to the head — would cause further damage, doctors told Carey she can never play basketball again.
“I’m devastated to say the very least,” Carey told reporters at a Nov. 7 press conference. “I guess it’s kind of a shock. You never really — in all the highest dreams and everything — you never really consider something like this would happen.”
Since the seventh grade, the basketball phenom suffered several concussions. After each one, she’d experience symptoms such as dizziness and headaches. Every time, the symptoms would disappear in a few days.
But Carey was playing defense during an Oct. 19 practice when she tripped, slid across the key and hit her head on a teammate’s shin. It wasn’t too hard of a hit, she said, but she felt the concussion symptoms setting in.
She rested for five days, but when the dizziness didn’t stop, she told coaches about her symptoms. Doctors ran tests on her immediately, and she was told not to play anymore soon after.
“Growing up, my dream was always to play for Stanford,” Carey said. “That’s the hardest part of it. I’ll never put on a Stanford uniform again and be with my team on the floor again.
“But, I’ll still be there for them and with them, and I’ll go through everything with them. I just won’t be physically playing.”
Oregon players and coaches were downtrodden in mid-September when star point guard Shaquala Williams tore her anterior cruciate ligament, an injury that will keep her from playing this season.
While the Ducks prepared for practice Wednesday, Williams stood in the hallway inside McArthur Court and talked about how bad she feels for her fallen competitor.
“Obviously, you’ve been told you can’t play for six months, and somebody was just told they can’t ever play again, and obviously it’s tough for her,” Williams said. “It has definitely put things in perspective for me in that as bad as I feel for myself, her situation’s worse.”
Williams, who knows Carey better than her teammates through summer league play, said she sent Carey an e-mail after she found out what happened.
“I told her I felt bad for what happened to her, and if she ever needed to e-mail somebody to vent or whatever, I was there, and it made me feel kind of bad that I was feeling so bad about myself, and now she’s put in a situation where she can’t play,” Williams said.
Another Duck who can connect with Carey’s ordeal is guard/forward Lindsey Dion. Dion suffered a concussion last season, causing players, coaches and fans to keep a careful eye on her.
“I can’t say I didn’t think about it,” Dion said. “I’m bummed for her, it’s got to be disappointing and I can’t imagine how she feels. It was hard enough having to sit out for a month, let alone someone telling you your career’s over.
“She’s so young, and she had what looked like to be a promising future for Stanford. What a bummer — for her, for her teammates, for the Pac-10.”

Camber’s day in the sun
Guard Camber Ellingson had never officially scored a single point, grabbed more than one rebound or played more than four minutes in her collegiate career.
That is, until last Friday.
The Baker City-native scored five points in nine minutes in front of 5,002 fans at Mac Court Friday as Oregon beat Portland, 80-56.
Watching from the stands were friends and family of Ellingson, including her 25-year-old brother, Greg, who played football at the Air Force Academy. Ellingson said she idolizes her brother, and that his presence made her first points even more special.
“I wanted to show him what I could do,” Ellingson said.
Ellingson scored her first career point on a fourth-quarter free throw. As the ball fell through the net, she said she didn’t realize her long-awaited milestone.
“I didn’t think about it when it went in,” she said. “After the game, when teammates were congratulating me, that’s when it hit me.”
Ellingson doesn’t expect her minutes to increase, and said she isn’t sure why head coach Jody Runge put her into Friday’s game.
However, Ellingson said she was happy to be on the floor.
“Of course I would love to contribute more to the team, but I don’t think that’s my role,” she said. “I’m more of an emotional leader.”