BATHURST juniors got the opportunity on Tuesday and Wednesday to learn from one of the best basketball players to ply his trade in Australia, National Basketball League champion Cal Bruton.
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At Bathurst PCYC Bruton put the Bathurst players through their paces, guiding them through drills, giving them match time and sharing stories.
The tales shared by Bruton were certainly worth listening to for the Bathurst juniors during the two-day clinic.
Arriving to Australia an American import, Bruton was one of the inaugural inductees in the NBL Hall Of Fame in 1998 and also picked up a championship with the Brisbane Bullets in 1985.
Bruton picked up a coach of the year award with the Geelong Supercats in 1982 before he was named to the NBL first team in 1983 and 1984.
Now the naturalised Australian travels around the country looking to promote the game of basketball and help guide the next generation of possible NBL and WNBL stars.
Bruton said he tries his best to make sure all areas of the game are covered over both the three hour sessions.
“Our exercise is all about delivering the fundamentals of basketball to these young kids. We think that’s very important in trying to help them develop and learn the game properly,” he said.
“We’ve set up all kinds of footwork drills because we build the game from the feet up, then we teach the fundamentals of ball handling, passing and shooting then it’s on to the defence, so they get a bit of everything.
“After going over that we let them play, have a bit of fun with the game, and make sure they’re doing all the right things that we talked about earlier in the practice session.”
Bruton has relished the coaching experience, giving him the benefit of both helping out Australia’s up-and-coming basketball players and giving him more time to spend with his family.
“I’m 62 years of age now and a true veteran of the game,” he said.
“I’ve achieved hall of fame status to representing Australia and being a championship player-coach so for me there’s nothing left now but to take my apprentices, my two young sons, around to see how I started and give them the opportunity to experience that as well.
“I coached for a while so this is comfortable for me. I was selling cars for 13 years and what it really boiled down to was that I didn’t have the opportunity to watch my sons play in the local comp, under 10s and 12s, and then it got to the point where I was taking a test drive to visit them while I was on the court.
“I made up my mind one day where I said ‘I can’t do this anymore, I’ve got to be there for my boys’.”