Countdown (22)

Just over a month ago I announced that I would be taking a hiatus from coaching basketball. It is a decision that I did not take lightly. After all, I have been coaching for 41 years. And that is a very, very long time.

Forty-one years. One could say that besides family, basketball has been the one constant in my adult life. I have given a lot to the game and the game has given a lot to me.

I coached both at club and international level in Malta. I was lucky enough to run international Jamborees for what was then FIBA Mini-Basketball. When I moved to Belgium I continued to be active, coaching in both international schools and clubs.

I coached my wife-to-be at university. She went on to coach basketball too. Our wedding cake was brown and spherical. Yes, you guessed correctly. It was a replica basketball.

We got married on a Friday. She coached on Saturday. We left for our honeymoon on Sunday.

My wife and I coached against each other for the first time on our first wedding anniversary – it was a top of the table clash. We agreed before the match that the winner would cook. Just to keep the peace😉.

When my daughter was only five months old we took her abroad for the first time. We were accompanied by over thirty young basketball players and a group of parents from our basketball school. We coached. The players and parents took it in turns to babysit.

I coached my daughter for a very short while at school. Coaching her was never my intention so I quickly passed her on to other coaches. I didn’t feel it was fair on her. I never let on just how proud I am to have coached her for that short time.

I have had the pleasure of working with top basketball coaches in international basketball camps. But above all I have had the chance to get to know so many young men and women and watch them develop. There is no greater satisfaction.

So making the decision to stop was not easy. Particularly because in the past five years I have had the pleasure of coaching a fantastic group of young men.

Perhaps I will return to coach the game I love. Perhaps not. Only time will tell.

Although I have stopped coaching I will never stop being coach. I still keep in contact with many former players. I will always be there for them if they need me.

Unfortunately some of my former players are no longer with us. That is something that is very hard to accept. I will be sixty if I live another week. They will never reach that number. It is a very painful reality.

After all, coaching basketball has always been about the people. Basketball was always a means. A common passion. If some of those I met along the way became successful in the game. That was always a bonus. Any milestone reached, however small, was a milestone shared,

Strangely enough, when I returned to writing poetry, writing about basketball was always something I found very difficult. Despite the fact that I wrote a basketball column for the Times of Malta for ten years.

Eventually, I think I managed to pen one piece that made it into Old & UnWise – A Haphazard Collection of Poetry and Thought. The title is The Buzzer Beater and fittingly it is the last poem in the book.

This blog is the twenty-second in a series of 30 leading up to my sixtieth birthday.  Basketball had to feature at least once. Please consider subscribing to my blog to keep up to date with my posts.

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