Shayna Cameron and Kaitlyn McDonald have played basketball long enough to see every kind of coach.
They’ve played for or against volatile bench bosses who pace up and down the sideline like caged tigers and motivate players by yelling at them.
They’ve watched cerebral coaches draw up X’s and O’s like mad geniuses, but struggle conveying concepts to their players. They’ve witnessed ultra-positive cheerleaders and coaches who barely said a word from opening tip to final whistle.
They’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work, and they’re ready to apply those lessons as they start their own coaching careers.
Cameron and McDonald are diving into it this spring/summer, McDonald with TransCanada Basketball and Cameron with 3D.
As players, they honed their skills with fundamentals-focused camps before moving up to high school and then university hoops.
‘Retired’ now at the ages of 23 and 21 respectively, they are inspired to give back to the sport they love.
“I’ve been involved in programs like this ever since I started playing, seeing how much time the coaches put in for me,” said Cameron, who ended a hugely successful collegiate career in 2016. “It seemed like the right thing to do to take what I’ve learned from my mentors and give back to my community.”
“All of my past mentors are still in my life and I want to be that for the next generation.”
There’s a lot of responsibility in that, because a good coach can have a huge impact on a young person’s life.
“How to deal with failure and success, how to be persistent and have a good work ethic and how to respect yourself and others — those are some very valuable things I learned through basketball that have made me a better person,” Cameron said. “Those are things that I want to pass on to them.”
“I’m very aware of what I say to kids and I try to keep it positive, because what they learn isn’t just about basketball,” McDonald added. “What they learn here will help define who they are when they’re finished playing.”
McDonald last played in 2015 for the University of the Fraser Valley women’s team, coached by Al Tuchscherer.
She first met the longtime UFV coach when she was a Grade 8 athlete in the Junior Cascades program and ended up playing three seasons for him at the university level.
She calls Tuchscherer her biggest coaching mentor.
“It’s because he was on me all the time, expecting me to give 100 per cent regardless of what was going on,” said McDonald, who feels she needed that constant pushing. “He held me to a higher standard and he does that with all of his kids.
“I respected him and I really wanted to work hard for him.”
Like all great coaches, Tuchscherer had that innate sense of when to push and when to back off.
“He could be so serious sometimes, but then he’d shoot you this little smirk” McDonald said with a smile. “You knew he was into working hard, but he was also having fun and he could be so much fun.”
Cameron’s main mentor was a little less serious than Tuchscherer, but no less effective.
“Dany (Charlery) is a character for sure,” Cameron chuckled. “He knows how to make you laugh in a serious moment but he also knows how to take advantage of those moments.”
Charlery turned the Quest Kermodes into a PACWest powerhouse, with Cameron leading the charge.
When she opted to stay in Squamish to train over three summers, Charlery sacrificed his off-season hours to help.
“Him giving up his summers to make me the player I was really resonated with me a lot,” Cameron said. “It paid off because we won a lot in my third and fourth years, but he also taught me a lot about how to stay humble and cherish it.
“He taught me a lot about how to stay grounded.”
Coaches are never cut from the same cloth.
McDonald isn’t going to be a clone of Tuchscherer and Cameron won’t be Charlery V2.
Already they are creating their own personas.
Cameron has coached club basketball so far, with more focus on skill development and less on competition.
Tailoring her approach to suit a gym full of youngsters, Cameron emphasizes creating relationships and practices what she preaches on the floor.
While some coaches will relax on the sideline and work the whistle, Cameron jumps right in with them. She does it with a sneaky sense of humour.
“If they’re lifting (weights) I’m lifting with them and if they’re running I’m running,” she says. “I encourage them to ask questions and I hope they’d say I am passionate about developing them.”
McDonald spent the last few months helping Sarah Mouritzen with the senior girls at GW Graham.
A bit of a goofball in her playing days, she has wheeled 180 degrees as a coach.
Her zany sense of humour still comes out from time to time, but she places a premium on accountability and practicing the way you would play.
“I think my players would describe me as a bit of a tough coach, to be honest,” she laughed. “Because I’ve been held to such a high standard, I don’t expect any less from them.”
When McDonald played for the Grizzlies, her teams never advanced past the Fraser Valley playoffs.
“They made it past Valleys this year, so it’s literally the first time I’m going to provincials, and at one practice they were goofing around too much,” McDonald said. “So I said, ‘ Hey, giggle the heck out of a joke in three weeks but right now we need to lock in.’
Like Cameron, she’ll tailor her approach differently for younger players who are new to the sport, but the underpinnings will be the same.
Have fun but work hard.
“I think that’s something I got from Al because he can be funny with you, but when he gets down to business it’s all business.”
“You’d be in a two hour practice, fully immersed in everything you were doing. You’d be exhausted but you’d know you got better that day.”
l Registration for TransCanada’s spring training camps is open online at tcathletics.ca/registration/
Eight week camps run from early April to late May, with elite travel teams carrying on over the summer.
3D Basketball programs also start in early April, with registration and info available online at 3dbasketball.net.
3D is for girls in the U-10 to U-17 age groups.
TransCanada is for U-10 to U-17 boys with a co-ed camp for U-5 to U-8.