Marty Handson Scholarship — Samoa 2019
Kaleb Sclater
Recently I travelled to Samoa for the Marty Handson Scholarship. The Marty Handson Scholarship is a new initiative run by Basketball Victoria Country (BVC) alongside FIBA Oceania. I was lucky enough to be given the honour of being one of the inaugural scholarship recipients. For me this is something I am, and always will be, proud of as Marty was a local figure in the Gippsland basketball community, and I have fond memories of him from when I was a kid at local skills days and tournaments.
Unfortunately Marty passed away a few years ago, so the scholarship is something that BVC has come up with to keep his legacy going. I remember as a kid, Marty was really enthusiastic as a coach and wanted each kid to enjoy themselves and learn every time they were on the court. One thing I can remember is being on Court 1 in Traralgon at a skills day and him being out in front of the whole group doing stationary ball handling. He could do all the dribble moves and cross overs without missing a beat (which can be a rarity for coaches as I do them without a ball so I don’t make a million mistakes whilst demonstrating) and was really upbeat and enthusiastic about us all having fun and improving. Marty went on to coach various state teams and be the BVC High Performance coach for a few years. When I got into coaching Marty was in Melbourne, coaching down that way and then I heard that he had unfortunately fallen ill. The biggest thing I will try and take away to my coaching from Marty is always be upbeat and passionate and focus on the kids enjoying themselves whilst learning.
I would like to say a big thank you to Basketball Victoria Country and FIBA Oceania for giving me this opportunity and especially to David Huxtable and Annie La Fleur for organising the scholarship. The logistics of the trip and everything else that they did behind the scenes has been greatly appreciated.
To the Samoan Basketball Federation thank you for agreeing to take part in the scholarship program and inviting me to your country. I hope that you enjoyed me being in Samoa where I was able to offer a small amount of help to assist you with your basketball development. And to Sarah, Fish, Utu and especially Fui a big thank you for all your assistance, for looking after me for the week and being my tour guides/helpers/translators; you all made sure that I enjoyed my trip and felt comfortable in a new country.
My key take away points from the trip are as follows;
1. Coaching in a country that speaks a foreign language is really tough
Leading up to the trip I thought that Samoan’s pretty much all spoke English. It wasn’t until a week or so out from when I was heading over that Annie mentioned to me that not all of them spoke English and that they would predominately speak in their own language. This was a little bit of a shock to me but I still thought that it would be ok and didn’t really plan too much in terms of communication and translation. Once I arrived and got off the plane, everyone in the airport and at the hotel spoke English, so it still didn’t hit me that I would need to adjust how I communicated to people. Once I got out into the villages and the schools it soon hit me that a few could speak English well, a few had some basic English and a lot couldn’t understand what I was saying. The first thing I did with the federation was to drive around to schools and talk to principals about conducting some clinics. Fui would do most of the talking as they spoke in Samoan and the principals would look at me while speaking and for me it felt like being back in my maths lectures at uni! I could pick up the odd word that was English but didn’t really know what was going on.
My first session that I conducted was with an open women’s team. I went in coaching and talking like I usually do in Australia, luckily that team was probably the best English speaking team or group that I coached even then I could see the confusion on their faces at times. This made me evaluate the way I spoke and communicated for my next session, which was a school clinic with a group of high school kids (50 kids and 3 balls on a rugby pitch). This clinic was a lot of fun and I really tried to minimise the length of my explanations. I had Fui and Utu there translating for me but at times some things got a bit lost in translation. From then on I had to really plan out how I was going to simplify the way I spoke and break down explanations for each drill, skill and little game I was doing. Sometimes I thought that I was skipping detail but there was enough detail in the basic skills for the kids to have fun and also improve.
Overall the language barrier was a frustrating thing for me as all I wanted to do was to be able to communicate to them in Samoan. I broke down my language to use basic and direct to the point words, hand gestures and demonstrations to get my message across. This is something that I will take away for my own coaching and teaching at home. I will put more time into planning a more simplified way to coach/teach and get my message across whether it be to players or in the classroom. The more we can break down our communication to make it easy for players and kids to understand the better they will learn and hopefully maximise their learning and development.

2. Samoa is a beautiful country
I have only ever travelled overseas twice before; once to England and once to Bali — two completely different places. Travelling to Samoa, I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of whether it would be like Bali or completely different. When I landed in Samoa (at 5:00am) I was greeted with a group of Samoan’s playing ukuleles singing songs and I immediately thought it was the coolest place in the world. Driving from the airport to Apia we travelled through a lot of villages and seen all the village huts and houses. A lot of the houses are really colourful with blues, pinks, oranges, greens and yellows. Upon smelling the fresh sea air I knew it was completely different to Bali or anywhere else I had visited before.
The motel I stayed at was right on the beach in Apia. The views of the bay were great and the people in the hotel couldn’t have been more friendly. They really wanted to make my stay the best experience they could and as soon as I needed something, they would bend over backwards to make sure I had it. If I was at the restaurant they would always make sure the food or drink was right. When walking around the streets I found the people of Samoa were really friendly. If they spoke English they would always say hello and if they didn’t they would wave. Everywhere I went I got a “hello brother, where are you from?” or “welcome to my country my friend” people would stop me in the streets and ask about Australia and if I was enjoying my stay. They were extremely friendly.
The sights of Samoa were like off a movie or in a magazine. I was taken to a Samoan cave pool by a beach which was an unbelievable sight. The beaches were crystal blue and the fish would swim around you like you weren’t even there. Not only were the beaches really nice but the rainforest and jungle was really cool as well. On the last day they took me hiking up Mt Vaea which is a big mountain looking over Apia bay. It was a tough hike but seeing the rainforest and the view from the top over Apia and Apia bay was well worth it. Samoans are proud of their country and they have a strong passion to keep it beautiful and picturesque. There was a big promotion to erase plastic from the island. They started to have a bit of a plastic rubbish epidemic, so they have banned plastic bags, plastic take away containers and plastic straws from the island and replaced them with paper versions. I thought that this was really cool to see them all buy into this for the better of their country. If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend holidaying in Samoa. I know that it is a place I’d definitely like to return to with friends or family and see even more of what the country has to offer.

3. Samoa is a very religious and spiritual country
When arriving in Samoa one of the first things I noticed was that there were a lot of churches and chapels, and one of the first things I was asked was if I had to go to church. I’m not religious and haven’t been to church since I was a kid, so I wasn’t sure if I would offend anyone by not being really religious. Before every meal they would pray and what I found interesting was before and after every clinic or training session they would also pray. One person would quietly say the prayer while everyone else quietly sat there with their heads bowed. This was something that I took part in as I could see how much it meant to Samoans and how thankful they were for every opportunity that they had.
At nights when I was back in the hotel I would sometimes put the TV on. In Samoa they only have about four TV channels and a lot of the content on the stations was religious or a church mass on TV.
The courts that we used for all the sessions and clinics belonged to one of the churches. I noticed that most days there was something going on in the churches where one of the youth groups or villages would be doing different things. On the Friday before I left, the village of Solosolo conducted a 3x3 tournament at the local chapel that had a basketball court. At 6:30 they all stopped and surrounded the court and a big horn would sound throughout the village and every person there began to pray, then the tournament continued. I was told that this is something that is done every day across the villages. The way they described it to me was that it was like a praying curfew and that every village does this and it gives Samoans all a time to pray for what happened during the day.

4. The youth of Samoa are really passionate about basketball
One thing I wasn’t sure about before I left was how much Samoan people liked basketball. I did a bit of research before I went, and it showed that Rugby Union and Rugby League were the top sports in the country followed by Volleyball, Netball and Soccer, but there was nothing really about basketball. We know that in Australia basketball is booming and our Aussie players in NBA are helping that cause as it has increased the popularity of the NBL and junior participation is booming, but I wondered how did this compare to smaller countries that don’t have professional leagues or star international players? As soon as I got to the clinics and the schools, I could see how much the kids and youth loved it. Street ball is big in Samoa — it is played in half courts around Apia and the 3x3 format is something they have really taken to.
When walking around Apia I could see the half courts were always being used by young people playing pick-up games and a lot of the youth getting around were wearing NBA jerseys and even the few odd NBL tops as well. It was easy to see before even asking who their favourite players were, as the majority of the tops were Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving. This wasn’t the only telling factor as a lot of them loved trying to “break ankles” and shoot the three. People that know me know I’m a big Cleveland fan so I was wearing my Cleveland hat around and all the kids that couldn’t speak English all recognised the logo and connected it with one name — Lebron James.
The clinics proved how much the kids loved basketball and all the school principals promoted basketball as a great alternative for the kids that don’t play rugby. The villages promoted basketball as a way for them all to come together. At the clinics we would never really know how many kids we would get, but the numbers were always large. Between 30 to 50 kids would show up at the schools and chapels for our sessions. Even if we didn’t have a court, like what happened at Vimaega College where we only had a rugby field, we still had 50 students participate and have a great time without shooting a single shot.
Looking around the world there are huge participation numbers of kids playing basketball, whether it be in Australia, Samoa or other countries. I still don’t know why it is so popular with young people, but I know it is great for the game that we are having more and more people play and enjoy it.

5. Being able to think on my feet was vital
I believe being able to think and create quickly on your feet is necessary for all coaches, whether it be in a training or practice session or in a game. Trying to figure out ways to nullify the opposition, control tempo or exploit a situation to your advantage are all a part of game coaching and happen on the run. Usually in training sessions, you have an understanding of how many athletes you might have and how many balls and what equipment you are able to use. We might just have to think on the fly if a drill or situation isn’t working, or all of a sudden you go from having 10 athletes to 7 or 15 to 20. Each session that I held in Samoa was guess work in terms of how many kids would show up, what age group they were and what skill level. This made it hard to plan out a session, so being able to think on my feet was vital for them to have an enjoyable experience.
The number of kids wasn’t the only hurdle that I had to overcome. The facilities and equipment could change at any time. I mentioned earlier about the clinic that was done for Vimaega College. We initially thought that we would be taking the session on the outdoor basketball court at the chapel just down the road. Unfortunately, we were unable to use the court, so we had to use the rugby pitch. This was a tough challenge but luckily I had enough time to work out some defensive drills, passing drills and minor games that we could do with a large number of kids and with no rings or courts.
Another challenge that required quick thinking was that we never really knew the age of kids that would be showing up to the clinics. The ages varied from 9 or 10 year old kids all the way through to 17 year old adolescents. This was tricky because the sessions had to be engaging for all ages but also have the right content for the right age groups. Competition was key for this, so grouping the kids of similar ages up and slightly modifying every drill or minor game to suit each little group was what I did. For the older kids especially, having a competitive edge in it made a simpler drill more engaging for them. They still hadn’t had a lot of fundamentals or skills taught, so if I made a simple form shooting drill competitive they enjoyed it while the younger kids would enjoy just doing the form shooting drill without the competitiveness as it was new to them. Eventually all the drills were turned into mini games and competitions but it was a balancing act to build up with the younger kids but just be competitive straight away with the older kids. The older kids just wanted to scrimmage a lot, so it was figuring out how to adapt scrimmages into minor games. The younger kids liked to play minor shooting games, dribbling games etc. All this made me really have to adapt quickly, change quickly and be prepared for anything a lot more than I ever have had to before.

6. In Australia we don’t realise how good we have it
I have always known how lucky we are as Australians to live in a country where we have everything at our fingertips. In Australia we have an opportunity to do just about anything, whether it’s academically, professionally or in a sporting venture. To see how we compare to a smaller country like Samoa was humbling. From a basketball point of view the pathways that have been incorporated for athletes, coaches and umpires in Australia are something we really need to value and appreciate as smaller countries don’t get the opportunities that we have here.
Throughout Australia there is numerous different avenues for coaching development and coaching opportunities. Coaches always have a pathway, mentor or someone that is willing to lend a helping hand to guide them to grow and learn. I believe Basketball Victoria Country do a great job in providing a pathway for coaches to learn and develop, whether it be the constant coaching courses that are run (level 0, level 1 and level 2) or giving coaches opportunity with BVC academy programs, skills days, jamborees, gold nugget camps and high performance pathways. I myself have been given opportunities at these camps and sessions and have learned a great deal from each experience. All of this is more than they have ever seen in Samoa and something coaches in Samoa would love to have. We are also lucky to constantly have our high-profile coaches giving back and conducting clinics or talks throughout Victoria and Australia, or even international coaches visit to do the same and show us different trends of international basketball. Recently in Gippsland we have had Dean Vickerman come and do a talk, Paul Flynn and Guy Molloy are also conducting talks and clinics for all coaches of all levels and age groups. We have ample chance to better ourselves and learn off people that do this full time which is something that Samoa and other countries around the world do not get. We really need to grab and take these are opportunities that are presented to us in Australia, as others would love to get what we get.
Sometimes in our country coaches can cop a bit of flak from parents, players and even other coaches at times for various reasons. This can be because of the coach’s experience, sometimes it’s the way they pick a team or the way they coach a team. One thing is for sure though, our kids and athletes have coaches. A lot of villages that I went to didn’t really have coaches, but the few that were there were wanting to ask questions, wanting to see my clinics and asking if I could stay around longer. The kids and few coaches they had treated me like I was Lindsay Gaze or Greg Popovich, when realistically I’m just a coach from the country town of Maffra in East Victoria. I did find this a little embarrassing at first, but it made me think if they do this for me what would they do for a high profile professional coach. Further to this, just have a think about the coach if you’re a parent and be thankful that the person coaching your son or daughter is giving up their time and that your kid now has a coach and gets to play. If you’re a player work hard for your coach and appreciate the fact that they are doing the job because kids and athletes from smaller countries would love to have the opportunity that you have.
My last take away from this is aimed at players. Everywhere kids constantly have the new signature shoe, private work outs, rep team trainings, club trainings, pathways to assist them to compete at higher levels and a court to access. This is something that kids in smaller countries and Samoa don’t always have. Every session I went to, multiple kids were training or playing in thongs or bare feet. This was another really humbling experience as they didn’t care if they didn’t have brand new runners, or the new Nike Lebron 15’s, they just went out and had a blast and enjoyed it no matter what. Another interesting fact was that they only really have one indoor stadium in the whole country called Gym 2, which was built for the Pacific Games. The Samoan National Basketball Federation hired the court for two hours for me to train an open men’s and women’s team and then they were having a practice match. Gym 2 cost the federation 200 Tala an hour which equates to about $120 AUD an hour. I found the costs unbelievable as I can use Maffra’s stadium back home for no fee. Unfortunately, the stadiums power had been shut off that week because the power bills hadn’t been paid so we could only train for an hour as the court became too dark for us to use. The rest of the courts that we used were three quarter sized concrete courts but the kids don’t know any different and still play all their 3x3 pickup games or have their training sessions and clinics on them without an issue.
The last thing I’d like to touch on is to be grateful for is our associations, clubs and regular competition. It was eye opening to hear that they didn’t really have a regular nightly competition like what we have with our home associations and clubs. All the organised basketball that they had were tournaments or 3x3 half court tournaments that were organised by a village. This is something that the Samoan Federation is wanting to incorporate. The village 3x3 tournament that was run was a really good night, it had a few teething problems but overall it was a great building block for them to create a weekly or fortnightly 3x3 competition or village tournament, which could also lead onto a weekly 5x5 competition.
This section isn’t intended as a dig at parents, players or coaches but it’s a reminder to be appreciative of what we have. In Australia and Victoria we are going really well with our basketball programs. We have some great resources and pathways for all people involved in our game to learn and get better. Use what we have, make the most of it and be appreciative of the little things.

Final Message
Finally, I would like to once again say a big thank you to the Samoan Basketball Federation, Basketball Victoria Country and FIBA Oceania for the opportunity. It was an enjoyable and eye opening experience and something I’ll always reflect on.
