Chapter 6 - Basketball Coach Steve - 5' 4"

Coach Steve with Abby.  Grade 8

The 3D team dispersed at the end of the Summer of 2008 and would resume in the Spring of 2009. In the meantime there would be something entirely new. The Handsworth basketball season.

The first of hopefully five seasons playing for her school was upcoming, and Abby, who would enter grade 8, was keen. Kathy, coach John's well intentioned spouse, had predicted this keenness years ago as we scoffed. Now it was here for us all and we were eager for the exciting ride that those before us had already taken. Handsworth had a basketball program full of tradition and expectations, talented players have been recruited to CIS universities, others to Division 1 teams in the US, and of course each team was measured against its ability to qualify for the Provincial Championships.

I had heard of the "Provincials" as they are called, but as my high school athletic experience consisted of being part of half enthusiastic teams who were instrumental in helping other teams advance to provincial qualifying events I was never able to appreciate these tournaments first hand.

My first experience with Provincials was, of course, with 3D. The Provincial Club Championships would be held in North Vancouver at the end the 2008 Club season. This was not "school" Provincials, but it did have club teams from around BC competing and so was our first taste of the fervor of provincial competition.

In a hot gym not far from our home the 2008 Club Provincial final was to take place between 3D and a pesky team from Kamloops. The game was as close as any game Abby's team had ever played against non US competition. Kamloops was very well coached, and for a group of grade 7's outside our bubble of basketball greatness they were obviously pretty great in their bubble too.

As Abby watched from the bench the Kamloops girls gave the 3D starters all they could handle. Elisa, Vanessa, Lizzie, Teagan, and Alannah (Jaime was a year older so was not playing) were able to answer most of their baskets, but the Kamloops squad had a lightning fast left handed point guard who was scoring by driving left, and an agile and noticeably taller post player who seemed to be able to rebound the ball before shots were even taken. The gym was lined with supporters of both teams sitting in flimsy plastic folding chairs, with even more fans standing pressed shoulder to shoulder behind. I could not understand the reason for so many people. Obviously there were more than just parents here. Plus with too many people in such a small space at high temperature there it is a statistical certainty that some of them are going to smell bad.

I figured Provincials must be important for at least one other reason than big fan support. Abby was on the bench. This game was too important to be enforcing equal playing time I presumed.

Baskets made were loudly cheered, and fouls loudly jeered. Parents shouted instructions to the players, annoying the coaches in the process. Every foul was in dispute according to the fans, the officials were in for a long day.

So this is Provincials.

The game was close, and half way through the fourth quarter Thomas called a time out. When the girls came out after the break there was an obvious difference.

Abby was out there.

All 5 foot 4 inches of skinny determination, she took her position. Lizzy came close and whispered something to her and they shared a quick high five.

I felt concerned. I didn't want My Kid missing crucial shots or finding some other way to create some sort of embarrassing catastrophe in front of all these crazy people from Kamloops plus everyone from our whole neighbourhood. There are only five players out there per team for gosh sakes chances are Abby will be on the end of something bad. I started paying closer attention to every move her body made. More critically than I had ever done before and with fear in my heart. Up to this point I had no idea how hard the starters and their parents had it.

What was she doing out there I wondered? A voice from a few plastic chairs beside me seemed to know.

"Abby, make her go RIGHT! Get out on her shots and after she passes DENY EVERYTHING!"

Abby looked at the keen eyed spectator but did not look mystified as I did. She quietly nodded at this Helpful Stranger, and prepared for battle.

"Deny that Abby! Deny, Deny, Deny! Well done!"

I'm hot. My soul feels like jello because My Kid is out there in front of the whole world about to commit a critical mistake. The person standing next to me smells like an unshowered long haul trucker wearing expired cologne, and a complete stranger from the stands not only seems to know who Abby is, but given his focus on her play seems convinced that she holds the crucial key to winning the game. I'm melting from stress more than heat.

"Deny, Deny, DENY ABBY!" Helpful Stranger screamed. Whatever the hell that means.

Well, Abby knew what it meant, and she apparently did it well. With the combination of the starters' ability to match Kamloops with offense, and Abby closing out their point guard from scoring any more points, 3D won the 2008 Club Provincials. They got a trophy the size of an Italian wedding cake. We still have it, Abby got to take it home first and nobody has ever asked for it next.

Helpful Stranger = Coach Steve. Not the soccer Coach Steve we have previously met, but Basketball Coach Steve.

There are passionate people, then there are über, super, hyperspace, seventh dimension passionate people. Coach Steve is one of these. Scientists have verified that his red blood cells are basketball shaped. His passion for the sport of basketball undoubtedly came from his own experience as a player, but reached untapped levels when he started coaching. He took to coaching girls in our neighbourhood in their formative years of the game, grades 7 and 8, and to this day takes great pride in creating in them a foundation for teamwork, technical understanding and skill.

But there is one thing that he infuses into the DNA of all his players absolutely and above everything else - to him the undisputed rule of space time that Einstein simply must have missed - the understated but mission critical basketball virtue of constant, in your face, relentless Defense.

His passion is not just for the game, but the girls and their accomplishments. He can rattle off from memory the number of rebounds each player he has coached has ever had, the consecutive number of minutes each of his teams has gone without getting scored on, who holds the record for consecutive foul shots etc. He watches, smiling, at every Argyle and Handsworth senior game he can get to so that he can watch "his girls" take the fundamentals he taught them in their early years onto the bigger stage under other coaches.

Coach Steve has a basketball wound in his heart that has never healed. He coached a promising group of grade 8's that along with his daughter Angela included the likes of Kris Young and Diana Lee. Names that have since written exceptional chapters of basketball folklore at Handsworth and to which young players strive to match in skill, dedication and results but deep down know they probably could never do it.

After an undefeated season and provincial playoff, this group of grade 8's arrived in the Provincial final as undisputed favorites. But the team was fighting the flu at the worst possible time and lost the final.

Looking out at this new group in the Club Provincials Coach Steve had probably seen lightning in a bottle. Could he coach this talented group to a Provincial championship in grade 8? Steve will argue a grade 8 championship in anything is the hardest to win given the sheer number of teams eligible and that none of them are diluted in skill because good players are not allowed to "play up".

Soon an email to the Handsworth girls on the 3D team came around from Coach Steve inviting them to a series of "unofficial" summer workouts. The call went out to any other interested girls entering grade 8 to participate. The roster was impressive. It included not only the dedicated 3D girls: Elisa, Lizzy, Alannah, Teagan, and Abby - but also the addition of a promising new basketball enthusiast: Delaney who stood almost six feet!

To Steve this group represented the salve to soothe his three year festering wound. He and this group (and a limitless supply of hand sanitizer) would restore order and win the grade 8 Provincials.