Q and A Time with Hickey's Hard Hitters

Former Ringwood Hawks star Matt Hickey, who is also a sports journalist and writer for Pick and Roll, put Hawks Coaching Director Ken Harrington under the pump this week. Check it out.

Victorian Basketball is finally back after the long COVID break and a lost season! As the game we all love begins to get back on track and VJBL tryouts get underway, I sat down with Ringwood Hawks Coaching Director Ken Harrington to talk about what happens next in a COVID world for a big club in Victoria.

Q  Thanks for joining us Coach, It is obviously an incredibly busy time for you guys. So far, what differences have you noticed as the sport has returned?

A.  No worries Matty, there are the obvious changes that you notice as soon as you arrive like the Qr code sign in, biosafety officers, sanitizers for your hands and ball. But the enthusiasm from the kids is still there and our great junior coaches have clearly missed it too.  The stress that tryouts create is still a big thing even though we have been unable to allow parents to watch the process this year due to restrictions.

Q.  Have you seen a drop off in kids at tryouts and in your other competitions.

A.   There has been a bit of a drop off in VJBL tryout numbers but it has still been very well attended. We still won’t be able to offer every kid a spot in a team which is easily the worst part of the process. We are expecting other competitions to be down between 20 to 30% which is not ideal but not surprising after a pandemic. Hopefully, over the next 12 months we can get everyone back to Basketball.

Q.   I remember attending tryouts as a kid, it was always an exciting and nervous time. How do the Hawks run their tryouts in 2020?

A.   This year we are a few months later than the normal tryouts time but because we have not rushed back our senior domestic comp, we have some access to court space during the week which gave us the chance to do it a bit differently. We have had two normal tryout sessions where we watch kids skill level and then place the players into tryouts squads. We will watch them play in two competitive games and hopefully allow each kid to do their best. This gives our coaches four chances to look at all the players and put the kids into the best team that suits their ability and position.

Q.   Much of the stress of tryouts has always been around players and parents focusing on making certain teams, like a one or two team. Is that still the case these days?

A.   Of course Matty, and there is nothing wrong with aiming to make the top team in your age group. But people need to understand that it is not the be-all and end-all. Our focus as a Club is to try and teach kids to love the game as that is what will drive them to improve as they grow and get bigger and stronger. With kids that get disappointed that they didn’t make the team they aimed for, we try to make them understand that it’s just the beginning of their Basketball journey. We have many many players in our NBL1 and Youth teams that were constant lower team players through juniors that kept working hard and eventually become stars at a high level. 

Q.   So you think those involved sometimes get too carried away with “that number” that comes at the end of each team name?

A.   Put it this way, every season we have kids that kind of fit between teams. Like they would be at the end of the bench of the “one” team or the best player on the “two” team. Most times they choose to go to the higher-ranked team because it’s bragging rights, but they end up unhappy as they don’t see a lot of court time. I can assure everyone that you don’t get better watching others play because I have watched countless NBA games and I still don’t play like an NBA player. I think what happens we have some narrow-minded thinking going on, there should be a long term goal (College/NBL1 etc) and not just a one-season goal. 

Q.   What’s the player pathway look like at Ringwood these days?

A.   I really love our pathway. We have our import players in the local Primary Schools promoting to kids to join a local domestic Club or attend a development program. From there it’s onto our VJBL program hopefully at Under 12 level so we can work with them at a young age. The VJBL comp will lead kids into our Youth League teams and then hopefully a USA College (We sent 7 kids last season) or the NBL1 teams. Then NBL or NBA?

Thanks for your time Coach, good luck with the rest of your tryouts and team selections and we look forward to seeing the Hawks kids back on court in 2021.