GRABBING CHALLENGES
You have had to juggle work and family commitments at times with your basketball stuff as well. How tough is that?
AMy personal ambition is something that has always been supported and cultivated by those closest to me, which is a wonderful thing to experience. My parents, wife and brother have always been encouraging of my pursuits, even when the ideas have been rather radical – magician, bull rider, horse trainer, dog trainer, microeconomist, just to name a few. My experience has been that the more responsibility you accumulate as a professional person, the greater the workload and generally, the more substantial the area you are expected to cover. You don’t climb the professional ladder by working short hours, taking weekends off, never travelling for your role and never spending personal time investing in your professional development. I’ve always been prepared to do things in the pursuit of my ambitions. Having said that, my priorities majorly changed the day my daughter was born and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find any motivation to be away from her.
Striking the balance between being a dedicated and present father and a high-achieving role model for Graysen is one of my great challenges.
You had a period recently where basketball was your fulltime job. Is that something you would like to get back to in the future and focus solely on it?
AWorking as a full-time coach in basketball had been a dream of mine since I was 15. I loved having the opportunity to tick that off the bucket list. To take up that opportunity, I had to retire from the Queensland Police Service after serv
ing for five years as a police officer across general duties, child protection and Police Citizen’s Youth Club (pictured). That decision wasn’t an easy one to make. I have quite a varied working background and towards the end of my time with Basketball Queensland, found the coaching position a bit narrow for my range of interests. The opportunity allowed me to have a singular focus, which was refreshing after competing work and coaching commitments. I got to coach all the best kids, attend all the best tournaments, participate at national camps and was paid to do something I had previously done for free. But after two years in the role, I felt the need to be challenged again. I’ve landed in a brilliant position with Gladstone Regional Council as the community development specialist and am enjoying the variety of responsibility that comes with leading a team of staff across a (broad) portfolio of work …. They say you should find a boss, not a job, and I’m certainly surrounded by the types of leaders that I can continue to learn from. However, the opportunity to work in professional sport will always remain attractive to me.