He finally makes the show
Merv Magus heading to B.C. provincial tournament
Merv Magus has been coaching high school basketball since Hey Jude was No. 1 on the charts.
In case you were wondering, that was the fall of 1968.
It’s hard to imagine, but at the age of 71, a man who has coached both boys and girls teams at three different Burnaby high schools over a 44-year career which has touched parts of six decades, is headed to the B.C. championships for the first time ever.
That is where Magus will be this morning (10:15 a.m.) as he leads his underdog Burnaby South Rebels into the opening round of the B.C. senior girls Triple A championships against the Vancouver Island power Oak Bay Breakers of Victoria at the Langley Events Centre.
Yet the biggest disservice you can do Magus is measure his impact by the number of trophies he’s won, because for him, there has always been a bigger picture: Coach whichever kids are there to be coached, and give them everything you have to give.
Six seasons ago, he even coached Burnaby South’s Grade 8, junior and senior varsity girls teams in the same season. “That wore me out a bit,” admits Magus, who was 65 at the time.
“But coaches are hard to find, and I still feel I have something to contribute to make better citizens of players. Plus, you get to meet a lot of nice parents and players.”
One of those players has never forgotten her old coach, and gets emotional just talking about him.
“I can remember him saying to me ‘I am not teaching you about basketball, I am teaching you about life, and following through on commitment,’” says Lorelei Reimer, who played under Magus on his junior girls teams in the early 1980s at Edmonds Secondary, and now teaches third and fourth graders at New Westminster’s John Robson Elementary.
“I am turning 47 (today) and I met him when I was 13. Those two years with him have impacted my life. I became a teacher because of him, and I teach with my heart.”
Earning one of the coveted 16 spots to today’s championships, which run through Saturday, is no easy feat. Burnaby South, which hasn’t been to the tournament for 49 years, failed in its bid to get an automatic berth when it was beaten by Richmond’s Steveston-London Sharks at the Lower Mainland championships.
That meant it had to win a suddenelimination game last week against Yale of Abbotsford just to make it, and that’s precisely what the Rebels did.
“I had mixed emotions when we beat them that night,” says Steveston-London head coach Les Hamaguchi, who is proud to call Magus a friend, “because as much as I wanted it for my girls, I was hurting his chances to qualify. He is a humble guy that is in it for the kids.”
And to say the Rebels qualified for the provincials with classy and quiet determination is fitting, because that is precisely the sideline demeanour of Magus: Quiet to the point of near total silence.
“You yell and the kids tune it out,” explains Magus, a coaching artisan and also a talented cartoonist whose work appeared for two decades in Vancouver Canucks game programs. “So I talk to them at key moments, so they hear me. And you have to be positive.”
And all along the way, Magus has stressed, in lock-step with life lessons, the fundamentals of the game.
“More than systems of play, his main stay has always been developing athletes at the lower age levels,” says Basketball B.C. technical director Ross Tomlinson, whose players were often times coached first by Magus when Tomlinson coached the senior boys team at Burnaby Central.
“I could always count on Merv to move athletes on to me with a very good understanding of the game.”
On Thursday, Magus will be presented with a Sport B.C. President’s Award for his years of service to the game.
And regardless of what happens with his team at the provincials this week, he will walk away knowing they have become better people for having shared in the experience. It’s why he keeps coming back year after year.