Warrnambool Seahawks coach Shane Smith waits on green light

My dad's family encouraged me to barrack for the Tigers as a child.

It was a long drought for Richmond before they won the flags in those years.

The one prior to those two victories was in 1980. I was only nine years old when they won the 1980 flag.

I was starting to think we may never win another premiership, that's why the last two flag wins are so important and I'm hoping we may win again this year.

It seems your name has been synonymous with local basketball forever, but did you play any other sport when you were young?

I played junior footy with CBC. I played in the under 12s, 14s and 16s.

I never played in any premiership sides, because of my height I was always going to play in the ruck.

I loved footy. My elder brother Gary played basketball in the local domestic competition, so I was always hanging around the courts.

I think I would have been about eight or nine years old when I started playing basketball in the under 12 competition. The late Terry Alexander was the coach.

I played through the junior grades.

Basketball was really big in Warrnambool back in the 1980s. There used to be about 1000 fans who would turn up for A Grade games on Saturday nights.

We had a representative side that used to travel to places like Ballarat and Bendigo to play in state games.

Things changed for local basketball in 1989 when the Seahawks came into existence. A lot of background planning had gone into starting up the Seahawks.

The committee did an amazing job getting local businesses and the community on board.

Lee Primmer was selected as the original coach of the Seahawks and I was selected in the first game. I was in year 12 at school.

We had some very good other locals in the original side including Tommy Greene and Anthony Haberfield.

Shane, who was the first international player that played for the Seahawks?

It was Craig Oakie, in the old measurements he was six foot, nine inches tall.

He was a very good player who had played over in America, and he changed the face of local basketball in 1989 with his style and knowledge of the game.

We travelled to Melbourne a lot for games and to places like Ballarat and Shepparton. I would say travel was probably the biggest bugbear for local basketball players and it's still the same today. I was also training out for the Victoria under 18 side back in that era.

I was travelling backwards and forwards to Melbourne to train. I ended up going over to Perth and played in the national tournaments.

I played for the Bulleen Bombers for five years in the South-Eastern Basketball League, which was the second-tier league, and then I had one year with Mount Gambier and 10 years with Broadmeadows in the same competition.

I was also doing some emergency teaching at various schools in Melbourne.

When did your family and you move back to Warrnambool?

It was in 2005. A job opportunity came up at Emmanuel College in Warrnambool. My wife's parents and my parents are from Warrnambool, so it was like we're just going home.

My wife Tamara and I thought it was great to come home and give our children a life in the country.

I'm now in charge of the Canterbury Road campus at Emmanuel College.

The job means I oversee years 11 and 12 of the school. I love the job. It has its challenges because teaching has changed so much over the years.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a big impact on students, teachers and schooling.

We're slowly putting things back together across the two Emmanuel College campuses regarding the students and their learning.

What would be the biggest change you've seen in your teaching career?

I started teaching back in 1996. There's been lots of changes but I would have to say technology would be the main one. The technology now is quite incredible. It always seems to be changing. Students have wonderful opportunities to further their education whether that's in different parts of Australia or overseas.

Shane, let's get back to the basketball for a minute. What's your involvement been in the sport since you arrived back in Warrnambool in 2005?

I played for a few years when we moved back to Warrnambool. My last competitive game of basketball was in 2010.

I got involved with the junior basketball coaching program and gave Matt Alexander a hand out in 2017.

You were appointed as the senior coach of the Seahawks earlier this year. What's it like to be in charge of the side?

It's good, but it's been different because of the pandemic. It's highly unlikely that we'll play this season.

We haven't played a game yet, we had one practice game. We stayed in contact with the players for the first month of the lockdown just to see that there all going well. We decided to step back after that allowing the players to stay in contact with their families.

We're in the process of catching up with the players over the next week or so, but as I said the indications are we won't play this season.

Looking forward, things are very positive for basketball in Warrnambool.

We've got excellent junior programs in place and they are starting to pay dividends.

We've got some promising young basketballers with the Seahawks and Mermaids ready to play once we get the green light.