I was raw coming out of high school. Really raw. My basketball experience was pretty much limited to one coach and I wasn't very good. Looking back on it, I wonder, if I was coaching the UBC team, would I have given young Eric a spot on the team?
I played 5 (actually 5 1/2 years if you count our time in Austria and France together) years for Bruce Enns and he has done a lot to shape my life. He gave me a chance to be a basketball player when few others would have done so.
Bruce loves a project. He loves to teach. He loves to help young players improve their games...which is exactly what I needed too. Here is Bruce sharing his knowledge with players from our Split Second Basketball class.
The rest of the weekend was a big, long reunion. On Friday night I met up with 3 long term UBC team-mates, Brady, Ken and Derek for a fantastic buffet dinner at Jericho tennis club before heading to the game. Barnaby Craddock, a friend and rival player, coached the University of Alberta to a convincing win over the Birds on Friday night.
On Saturday afternoon, I organized a get together at War Memorial for the boys to meet up with Bruce and to play a little ball. We ran for an hour without any injuries....success!
We were done our run in time for a pre-game meal at Mahoney's and to watch the end of the Seahawks game.
The T-Birds played much better on Saturday night and won convincingly against the Saskatchewan Huskies. Dozens of former players came out to see and support Bruce, who was honoured at half-time. After the game we got together for some pictures before post game drinks at Mahoney's and The London. We didn't tear it up quite like the road trips of 1995-97, but I still felt pretty rough coaching Lukey's 8am hockey game Sunday morning.
The bulk of our 1995-96 Canada West Championship team.
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