Bill Disbrow speaks out on building an identity
St. George’s Saints senior boys varsity basketball coach Bill Disbrow has coached at the top levels of the high school game for the past 40-plus years. He expressed his thoughts on the prep school issue in an open letter to The Province this past September.
It was recently announced that three of B.C.’s best high school players have decided to leave their schools to attend prep schools.
They believe this is the best way to enhance their chances of making it to higher levels.
Please understand what they give up to do that.
They leave their teammates, family and friends behind earlier than others do.
They will play on a team full of guys who all want to be starters, all want to be the star. This is obviously not possible, so most will be frustrated and unhappy.
The world of sport becomes a little nastier as we move on. Perform, or lose your job or scholarship.
In high school, we get to compete at a high level without those fears. And in the pro ranks or at a college, we are limited by contracts or by numbers of scholarships, so the player has some protection. Prep schools have neither.
You will not play in a league. You will not have a rival team you love to play against. You will not represent a school that means anything to you, or may even play for no school at all.
When Steve Nash was here over the summer, he told us that despite all his success, he feels that it’s the friendships he made, and the teammates he shared dreams with, that made the biggest impressions on his life.
His best friends are still his high school teammates. He didn’t leave. He stayed at his high school.
And high school basketball in B.C. is outstanding. It has produced tons of CIS players, lots of (NCAA) Div. 1 players and several NBA players.
Most of the B.C. players who have left have ended up returning or transferring to other schools, some more than once.
The move to prep school didn’t help one that we’ve seen yet, certainly not in comparison to what they lost out on. Practising and playing against a higher level competition is of course beneficial for anyone, and especially for the transcendent athlete like Andrew Wiggins or Ben Simmons. But for the vast majority of us, working hard and challenging ourselves in practice makes up for that. Work hard to achieve your goals, do it with teammates who share your desire for team success and those goals can absolutely be attained, no matter how high they are, right here at home.
Your shared life experiences will be far greater than those who leave because you will have joined a very special basketball community in your own school with people who will have become your lifelong friends.