WHILE the 2018 South East Australian Basketball League season did not pan out as hoped for the Mount Gambier Pioneers, there is some good news at the end of the day.
The club this week announced head coach Richard Hill will be back until the end of the 2020 season.
Hill has been part of the Pioneers basketball program for seven years and in that time taken them from obscurity to one of the most successful clubs in the history of the competition.
That success is something Hill is proud of and puts it down the people involved, beginning with those on the floor.
“When I got here in my first year we had a lot of work to do to rebuild the team and the culture,” he said.
“We had some good leadership in the group and were able to bring in Brad (Hill) and Tom (Daly) on top of Eze (Erik Burdon) and Suttsy (Matt Sutton).
“That gave us a really good core for a five-year run.
“We were able to build on that, then other guys who came in were able to follow the leadership of those four guys in particular.
“It has been pleasing we have been able to set the standard in the competition – our win/loss record over that period is ridiculous, something like 75-80pc.
“We have been able to win on the road, win under difficult circumstances, deal with those situations really well and win close games.
“It has been good.”
That success provided knock-on advantages, with crowd figures on the rise and sponsorship dollars flowing in.
“I’d like to think the whole thing has evolved together,” Hill said.
“The team has been successful and that has generated a lot of interest.
“At the same time management has grown and become very strong.
“People have got on board and I would like to think that would continue.
“Now we struggle to accommodate all the people who want to be involved, which is a great situation to be in.”
Hill said that continued sponsorship allowed the team compete in what is the premier winter basketball competition in the country, with few other sides facing the challenges of the Pioneers week in, week out, something he said was not easy.
He said that challenge would continue now and could become even greater in the near future.
“There is a possibility we will need to have a rebuild of the team,” Hill said.
“We haven’t nailed that down as yet.
“We will have to continue to bring people in from outside – you couldn’t compete without bringing people in from outside the area.
“We are competing against cities, against teams like Hobart, Geelong, Ballarat, Nunawading and Dandenong.
“These are places which have more people playing basketball in their arenas than we have in our whole town.
“It is massive.
“We have always brought in good people and that is also a major part of our success.”
While it all sounds very industrial, that seems typical of Hill’s attitude towards the job.
He is often hesitant to speak about his own personal sacrifices for the team.
Hill is based in the leafy Adelaide Hills suburb of Handorf, but spends much of the year here in Mount Gambier – in fact around eight months of the year.
During a season he may only travel home once or twice to see his wife, while she may come down to visit on similar occasions.
But that is something he is comfortable with and it does not just come down to the success he has helped create here with the Pioneers.
“I don’t look back at what we’ve done,” he said.
“We have had success and that is good, but I still crave to win more.
“I have enough energy and I love coaching.
“It is pretty much what I have done all my life.
“The club gives me the opportunity to do what I love doing and my wife supports that as well.
“The connection between myself, management, players and supporters is what keeps things ticking over.”
Hill said he was pleased the city continued to welcome him, as it had done over the years with many players such as Burdon, Sutton and Daly.
“I’m settled here,” he said.
“I don’t live here permanently, but I am fortunate, I have two homes.
“I have a home and connections here and a home and connections back at Handorf, so I am very lucky, I have a double whammy.
“Not many people can say that.
“I don’t see this as a massive sacrifice for me.
“It is a sacrifice for my wife, but we are doing what we want to do and that is important.”
While some people have suggested Hill may be chased by bigger fish, that continued connection between the city and the basketball fraternity seems to suit him at this stage of his career.
“I couldn’t imagine at this time of my life any change of environment as far as coaching goes,” he said.
“I’m not interested in coaching anybody else other than the Pioneers.
“We have built something here and I just want to sustain it so when I do move on it can be sustained with the next coach.”
