WATCHING Bernie Harrower stride the polished floors of Bendigo Stadium you’d think he was born to be a basketball coach.
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Right? Wrong.
If it wasn’t for a serious knee injury suffered playing football, Bernie wouldn’t be coaching the Bendigo Spirit in Sunday’s WNBL grand final.
In fact, you could mount a strong case that the Spirit probably wouldn’t even exist.
“I played baseball and football when I was young,’’ Bernie said this week.
“I played a lot of footy with Kangaroo Flat (where he’s a life member) and I didn’t get involved with basketball until I was 23.
I played a lot of footy with Kangaroo Flat (where he’s a life member) and I didn’t get involved with basketball until I was 23.
“I started coaching Janice (Bernie’s wife) before I even started playing basketball.
“I did my knee playing footy and I didn’t want to have a reconstruction, so I started playing basketball in the local grades just to keep fit.
“I started off in the lower grades and worked myself up into A grade.
“Then the kids (daughters Kylee and Kristi) started playing and junior teams are always looking for coaches.
“I got roped into coaching the kids and that’s where it all started.”
Not only was Bernie’s brilliant coaching career born.
It was at this time that a pint-sized young girl named Kristi started to turn heads in the basketball community.
Despite being half the size of her team-mates and opponents, Kristi soon showed she was a natural when it came to basketball.
“When Kristi was four years of age we were running the canteen here in the old stadium,’’ Bernie recalled.
“She used to roll around the stadium on her roller skates and anytime there was a time-out or it was half-time she’d roll out on the court with a ball and shoot hoops.
“I’ll never forget watching Kristi play in an under-12 grand final. She was only nine or 10 and she scored 32 points.
“That only seems like yesterday. In a blink of an eye Kristi’s and my career are getting closer to finishing.”
More than 30 years since starting his coaching career, Bernie has a basketball CV that has a constant theme – success.
While some coaches are made by the quality of their teams, Bernie’s success at every level proves he knows what he’s doing.
After a couple of stints as assistant coach of the Bendigo Braves, Bernie’s coaching got serious in 1990 when he was asked to take over the reins of the Lady Braves.
At that stage the Lady Braves had never won a trophy.
That changed very quickly. In 1990 they won the Country Victoria Invitational Basketball League, the country championships and the country premiership.
It was a similar story in 1991.
He was then appointed coach of the Victorian under-20 women’s team.
Two years in charge for two national championships.
After having a break from coaching for a few years, Bernie was lured back to the Lady Braves in 1996 – this time in the much tougher South East Australian Basketball League.
In the next 13 years under Bernie’s guidance, the Lady Braves won five SEABL titles, two national championships and only missed the play-offs twice.
Despite having offers to coach men’s basketball , Bernie prefers to coach women.
“I think women’s basketball is the purest form of the game,’’ he said.
“Women run plays, get through their offence and less is relied on that one-on-one aspect that you get with the men’s.
“Women’s basketball is a great spectacle to watch. A lot of the time men’s basketball is about the athleticism and showtime.”
Bernie believes the secret to his coaching success has been that he’s not a text book coach.
“When I first started taking coaching seriously there was no internet to look up information,’’ Bernie said.
“It was hard to get information on coaching.
“I tried to learn off everyone. I went to as many clinics as I could, watched coaches, watched games.
“I was lucky to learn a lot off Mike McHugh with the ITC junior program and Ray Tomlinson from the Melbourne Tigers.
“When I started coaching the Lady Braves I started to do things my way,’’ Bernie said.
“I’m certainly not a text book coach. I’ve always thought outside the square.
“I’m big on defence and the way I coach defence is not the way a text book says to play defence.
“I coach to whatever best suits the team I have at the time.
“My methods might be seen as a bit unorthodox.”
Bernie has always thought outside the square.
Nine years ago, Bernie launched an ambitious plan for Bendigo to have its own Women’s National Basketball League side.
Most people around Bendigo said it wouldn’t work.
Too much money, not enough community support, the club wouldn’t be competitive – were the three negatives most of the nay-sayers threw at Bernie.
Despite this, Bernie’s confidence never wavered.
“There were some people who were enthusiastic about the idea, but the disappointing thing was a lot of basketball people in Bendigo that were against it,’’ Bernie said.
“It was seen as a liability and the traditionalists out there saw the WNBL side as a threat to the Braves and Lady Braves.
“I saw it as a natural progression for women’s basketball in Bendigo.
“The Lady Braves had been very successful at SEABL level and the WNBL was the logical next step.
“I always thought the club would work if we got the right support.”
Nine years on the community support for the Spirit is more than Bernie ever imagined it would be.
More than 2500 people will pack into Bendigo Stadium on Sunday to watch the Spirit attempt to win a second-straight championship.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ve got left in the game,’’ he said.
“Coaching basketball has taken out a big chunk of my life and I’m not getting any younger.
“The opportunity to win championships is very rare. The opportunity to win back-to-back championships is rare.
“When you’ve got a team good enough to play in grand finals you’ve got to make the most of it.
“For the Spirit to win another championship would be sensational.”