Yes, I’m coaching basketball again at Shawnigan

Every September, my friend Paul Klassen asks if I’m coming back to coach another season of basketball at Shawnigan. Every year I have the same answer, and I will have the same answer every year until the School no longer wants me to coach. Coaching basketball is in some regards the most selfish endeavour of my life. Sure, I realize I’m giving a lot of time, energy and expertise (depending on who you ask) to the program, but I get way more out of it than I put in, and frankly it’s not even close.

 

 

Time flies, and this is indeed my ninth year coaching basketball at Shawnigan, and excitingly my first year coaching the senior boys’ team. I wasn’t gifted this opportunity; I’ve put my time in, and more importantly, I’ve worked hard to put myself in this position.

 

I started by volunteering as an assistant to Jason Lam when he was coaching our Grade 9 team. This was my son Reuben’s first year playing at Shawnigan (as a Grade 8 on the Grade 9 team) and I was keen to get involved as much to spend time with Reuben as to get back in the basketball gym (roughly a decade after my last men's league as a player).

 

I realized by the end of my first practice that coaching and playing were two entirely different beasts, and that I had a great mentor to learn from. So, I pitched in where I could and learned as much as possible while working with Jason.

 

I came back for two more years as an assistant with the Grade 9 team, this time under Jayson Williams. Jayson allowed me to implement some systems and concepts that I believed in, and we led our team to grab a berth at the Grade 9 Provincials in 2019.

 

The following year, as part of a coaching shuffle in the program, and after a meeting with the Director of Athletics where I sort of begged for an opportunity to prove myself, I was given the reins of the Grade 9 team. After back-to-back Cowichan Valley junior B Championships and three straight trips to the Island semifinals, we played more modern and advanced systems each year and I was feeling like I had established myself and our Grade 9 program as one of the best in the division. 

 

I guess when you're feeling that way, it’s time to move onwards and upwards, so I jumped at a chance to move up to junior A basketball last year, and was completely shocked at the difference between the levels. It took a couple weeks to get my feet under me coaching at junior A. It felt like everything that worked at the Grade 9 level was easily defended against at the junior A level, and that our defensive schemes were being picked apart by more experienced coaches on the regular. I had no choice but to “hit the books” and figure out how to prepare my team to compete at this level. I’m quite proud to say that in early 2024, we went on a great run, racking up wins and competing with the top teams around the province and in Alberta when we visited Edmonton. I will always be proud of this team, because when I went to them and explained that I had got it wrong in December, they stuck with me, put in the extra work and, together, we flipped the script on our season.

 

I am writing this having gone up again to the senior level. And if I’m honest, the jump doesn't seem as extreme as going from Grade 9 to junior A, but maybe I’ll have a different take on that after the season has come to a close.

 

I spent the off-season coaching a senior level club team, which surely helped me to get ready for the jump, but I’ve also been reunited with three players who I coached for their first two years at the School, and brought four players up with me from last year. I told these guys on day one that we are going to work together to figure things out and turn this program around. It's a two-way street: they work hard for me and I listen to them. And, so far so good! (As of writing this we are 8-7 overall with a tournament championship at the Wolverine Icebreaker and bronze at Hoopin’ in the Hive.)

 

 

Sure, coaching scratches a competitive itch and keeps me involved with the sport I love, but at the end of the day, it's the relationships with those involved that are really what's made this all so important to me over these last years and what will keep me coaching for years to come.

 

Among the most important relationships in the sport is that with my son, Reuben. I started coaching to spend more time with him. We actually stood in the ball room before his last Grade 9 game and talked about it being our last game together. Boy, were we wrong! Reuben came back in Grade 10 and managed my Grade 9 team. In Grade 11 he came back as my second assistant, and in Grade 12 he became my lead assistant. After a year away, he came back to the Island and took his role back as my lead assistant. All told, we have been together, representing Shawnigan, in well over 100 games! I’ve repeatedly told him that one of my biggest regrets in life is that I waited so long to get into coaching. And I guess he listened, because at the tender age of 21, he is in his second season as head coach of the Mount Douglas Secondary junior girls’ team, and doing an amazing job.

 

I also have to mention my lovely wife, Jenn. Super sorry for all the dinners that Reuben and I have ruined by constantly talking basketball over the years, and for listening to me break down games in detail, night after night after night. Love ya!

 

So, with the opportunity to develop and work at what is really a passion project, with all the support I’ve been given here at Shawnigan, and with all the amazing people who are involved, maybe you now understand why I refer to coaching as being a “selfish endeavour.”

 

I guess, if Paul Klassen is reading this, he will now know he can stop asking me if I’m still coaching, because yes, Paul, I am.

Mr. Andrew Shepherd is the senior boys' basketball coach at Shawnigan Lake School and the father of two grads: Reuben '21 (Duxbury) and Grace '24 (Kaye's).