For my Community Connections project, I chose to interview my basketball coach, Sean Lisik. While Sean is also a successful Physiotherapist at the Fraser Health Authority, my coach is someone whom I admire and look up to every day. He inspires me because although he is great at basketball himself, he chose to share and teach his strategies to his students instead of working hard on polishing and refining his own skills. Coach Sean showed that he is a really enthusiastic, kindhearted and patient person. He teaches in a really patient and understanding way to those who are new at basketball, etc. For example, sometimes only 2 people come to practices and he still comes out of his way to teach us as much as he can. Many times after we’ve lost a basketball game, he would remain positive and tell us about what we should improve and work on. Furthermore, I really respect his teaching style compared to other coaches I’ve had in the past. Truthfully I am so glad that I have to chance to be taught by Sean Lisik. This connects to my passion of playing basketball because Sean never gave up and stayed positive after numerous obstacles that got in his way. I am so glad that he got where he is today and that he is willing to educate others. I respect my kind coach, and that is why I am choosing to base my project about him!

The questions I asked Sean after asking if he would be willing to answer a few questions are…

Why are you passionate about playing basketball?

His answer was “My passion for basketball came naturally; meaning that I tried out basketball at gym class, found it fun, but then again I find most sports fun. The more of it that I played the more I liked and watching the NBA games on TV further fuelled my passion, especially that this was the era of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and of course Michael Jordan.”

What advice would you pass on to someone interested into starting basketball?

“I would give someone interested in starting basketball the same advice I give to anyone looking to try something new: do it. You’ll never know how you feel about something without trying it. Then to add to this I would encourage to try other new things and sports too – by comparing we can discover more about what we like about the sports and performing in different sports often benefit each other.”

Who did you look up to the most growing up?

“Unlike most of my friends my favourite basketball player was not Michael Jordan. He was amazing to watch but Shawn Kemp was my favourite. He was, and still is, the most explosive and powerful dunker I’ve ever seen and was one of the few to make the NBA without going to college. I’m not against higher education but loved the idea that someone could be discovered at an outdoor court as being talented and hard-working enough to make the NBA.”

What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?

“Many obstacles. I think we all do and all will. My family had financial limitations so I could do 1 sports camp a year, no clubs, just the school sports that had low costs. But I recognized this is less of an obstacle than many others face. I twice had to recover from dislocating my shoulder and torn ligaments in my ankle – and while this ultimately may have limited me from playing at the college level (I recovered well, but each recover was 2-3 months of not playing, so falling behind) it lead me to a career as a physiotherapist. Later I returned to the sport to coach my daughter who I thought would enjoy it and play recreationally myself but that led to 2 more shoulder dislocations.”

What is your biggest achievement in basketball?

“Specific to basketball I felt like I fell short of my greatest achievement a few times, but I don’t see that with regret. I understand that I worked to get to the level to achieve it. So it’s the knowing that I got to that level that is the best success even though I never got the actual achievement. To be specific: I was a starter on my grade 11 basketball team and some games would even be the high scorer – but I didn’t pursue grade 12, which would have been the biggest achievement, but I chose an academic route instead. Additionally both of my shoulder dislocations were during try-outs for elite regional teams – where both times I knew I was having a great try-out, playing at my best and would be a starter on that team but ended up in a sling and didn’t get to play.”

Was there a time you felt like you wanted to give up? How did you bounce back?

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