Longtime Knight calls it a day
Hoops coach Mosley looking forward to being just a spectator
After three-plus decades coaching basketball, Phil Mosley has called a timeout, one that won’t end with a referee’s whistle.
It will only end when — and if — the retired educator decides he wants to hang a whistle around his neck again and return to pacing the sideline while players are running up and down the court.
That’s unlikely to happen any time soon now that Mosley has opted not to return for a sixth season as head coach of the Niagara College men’s basketball team.
“I really right now can only think of not coaching,” he said. “It’s been 35 years doing something in either high school or college, so I’m just looking forward to being a spectator at some games, following some high school programs and just taking a break.
“That’s my ‘current future.’ ” There wasn’t any one thing that tipped the scales in favour of retirement from coaching at age 60. For Mosley, it became throughout last season as “just one of those things where you just sort of know.”
“I enjoyed every minute, but I think it was just the day-to-day rigours of that sort of coaching life,” he said. “Like I said, I enjoyed it but it was a lot of work, it was a lot of time.
“I also knew that I wanted to go out on my own terms, when I still felt good about the program when I still felt good about my relationships with my coaches and my players.”
Mosley, who spent 12 years coaching at Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls, followed by eight at Thorold Secondary School and 10 at Welland Centennial before retiring from teaching, didn’t enter the 2023-24 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) season thinking it would be his last.
“After a certain number of years, I think it was one of those things where I was looking at this season as possibly (the last) but you always wait to make the decision,” he said. “See how things go, see how your energy is throughout the course of the season, and I think that’s where it started to become clear as the season wore on.”
In an interview, it was suggested Mosley would have a hard time going forward straddling the line between watching hoops as a spectator and watching with an eye on recruiting.
“I think when I say that (as a spectator) I just enjoy the game so much. I think I probably will always be there watching,” the native of Oklahoma City said, laughing at the suggestion. “It becomes part of your life, and it’s probably really hard to just cut it off.
“I think my biggest thing is moving into a different phase of my life and that opportunity to just sort of relax and watch basketball from a different lens and a different environment.”
Mosley is not a “big golfer,” but he expects to spend more time with his family and the two grandchildren he adores.
“I’ll find lots of things to keep me busy, and I still won’t be too far from gymnasiums just following all sports,” he said. “I’m hoping to have time to do all of those things.”
Mosley was in his third stint at the region’s community college and second as a head coach. He attended Niagara and played basketball with the Knights from 1981 to ’83 before going on to earn a degree in physical education from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich. In 2004-05, he led the Niagara women to a 4-6 record after succeeding Georgie Groat as head coach.
He also coached football during his teaching career at public high schools in the Niagara region, but he preferred coaching basketball.
“My passion was basketball, for sure, but I did do football at Westlane, Thorold and at Centennial,” he said.
He did play football growing up and enjoyed coaching the sport after he started teaching.
“I just enjoyed coaching in general,” Mosley said. “I liked the opportunity to work with young studentathletes. That was just a big part of my life.”
Did Mosley have a preference between coaching female and male student-athletes?
“Absolutely not,” Mosley answered. “I get that question often and I always can say that coaching was very pure for me. It was very much something for me that was non-gender.
“It just had to do with coaching basketball, being with student-athletes and watching them develop and watching them grow, and then watching them become really good people after high school and after college. That’s the real reward.”
Mosley’s overall record since taking over the Niagara men’s program in 2018 was 50-35.
In addition to capturing the bronze medal at the OCAA championship in 2018-19, the team received 14 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national scholar awards and 20 provincial all-academic awards during his tenure as head coach.
“Phil Mosley is one of those people that you always want around your student-athletes,” Niagara athletics and student engagement director Michele O’Keefe said. “His professionalism matches his heart and commitment to the young men on his squad.
“We are so proud to always be part of the conversation when it comes to competitive teams in the OCAA and CCAA thanks to Phil’s efforts.”
Mosley and his wife Sylvia live in Ridgeway. His coaching contract with the college runs out May 29. A successor has yet to be announced.