Pictured above Spencer McKay

You will see at right a button for Nothin’ but Net and if you click on the link it goes to the registration form for this summer’s training camps.

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First in a series:

Question: You started your ‘ball career as a result of playing high school basketball in Oliver, and went to the University of Victoria, then to Europe? How long ago were all these events?

McKay: I’m going to address this part a little more extensively than you perhaps needed me to. The reason is simple- I really owe a lot to other people in Oliver. I worked hard, but my success was largely thanks to a series of people and events in my youth. Well, I was born in Oliver and my dad was a teacher at SOSS. He also coached the Hornets, so the first basketball game I ever attended was about 2 weeks after I was born, so I guess you could say basketball was engrained pretty early on. I always loved the game, watched it on TV all the time, and finally hen I was in grade 3, my dad started Oliver Mini-ball, which still exists today. Mini-ball enabled not only me, but most of my friends to learn the game of basketball from knowledgeable people under controlled circumstances. Playing pickup games with your friends is great- and indeed essential if you want to be good – but if you don’t learn the game the correct way, you can pick up bad habits that are difficult to break. The skills we learned from my dad and other coaches in mini-ball enabled us to go out and practice them in the playgrounds, in our back yards and driveways, and whenever we could at school. Oliver had a very strong basketball tradition before my dad moved here, but it was largely because of mini-ball that we had (and still have) a wealth of skilled players in Oliver.

My personal success at the high school level was by no means a solo venture- you don’t win a championship with one player, it takes an entire team. I was surrounded by talented players (and fellow basketball nuts) like Dan Houle, Dennis Shannon, Blaine Hovanes, Paul Goncalves, Carl Haak… the list goes on. We played all the time- before school, recess, lunchtime, and after school. We all had a hoop at our house, and we used them. We parked cars around the courts and turned the headlights on so we could play at night, we played in the rain, and sometimes we played in the snow. Guys were also getting taller- for a small school, we were becoming a powerhouse. By the time I was in grade 10, I decided to play senior basketball in order to challenge myself, and hopefully give our school a better chance to win the BC championship the next year. With point guard Dan Houle (6’2″), Dennis Shannon, and Pat Dumont (both 6’5″) , and me, I knew we’d be nearly impossible to beat. Despite going undefeated all year, we lost in the first game of the BC’s to a team we had previously beaten by 45 points. Those of us who were there learned from our mistakes, and vowed to never let it happen again. The next year we won, but it was kind of a victory for all the guys we had played with at SOSS. We all worked for it, we all played, and we all pushed each other to get better and to win. Houle and the rest of those guys were just as big a part of our ’86 championship as I was, make no mistake- they all made us better.

Before Oliver became the Wine Capital of Canada, it was pretty much unknown to the rest of the province, let alone the world. If not for the Hornet’s success, it would have been difficult for me to get much exposure. I was good, but nobody pays attention to a losing team. When I was 15, I was invited to play for the BC Under 16 team, and I got the chance to prove myself against the best players my age in the province. The next summer I was invited to try out for the Canadian Junior National Team, and after 2 weeks of tryouts, I was named to the starting 5 for my first International game against South Korea at a tournament in Bangkok. Small world- their best player later became my coach in Taiwan, 12 years later.

I decided to attend UVic in 1986, then graduated in 1991. My first professional job was in Portugal, for Belenenses in Lisbon in 1991. I continued playing professionally in Europe until 2008.