The Southern Shore’s Baltimore Broncos are provincial champions after winning the AA Boys Basketball tournament this past weekend at their home gym in Ferryland. In the back row, from left to right, are: coach Wendy Walsh, Kegan Goodridge, Nathan Crane, Ashton Crane, Carter Coady, Jeremiah Ryan, and coach Liam Walsh; in the front, from left, are: Zachary Ryan, Nathaniel Walsh, William Carey, Cameron Shannahan, and Landon Reddy. Submitted photo.
By Mark Squibb / June 2, 2023
A group of Ferryland boys who have played basketball together for the past eight years have ended their school-age ball career with a championship win in their home gym.
“If I was a good writer, I could write a script for a Hollywood movie, because the way this all played out was just like a movie,” said coach Liam Walsh.
Liam began coaching the group eight years ago, when the boys would have been in grades 4 and 5. His wife Wendy came onboard the following year, and the two have coached the team ever since.
Five of the students will graduate this June, and for those five students, this was their last provincial high school tournament.
“Sunday was the culmination of eight years of coaching and teaching,” said Walsh, adding the boys, who were always ready and willing to practise, went above and beyond to prepare for this particular tournament.
“For eight months, we’ve been in the gym three times a week, sometimes more, and even over Christmas break and over the weekend when we could,” Walsh said. “So, it’s an hour-and-a-half a practise, so that amounts to hundreds and hundreds of hours of practise.”
When Walsh began coaching the boys all those years back, some of the boys had never played proper basketball before, while others had developed some skills. Regardless, every boy was willing to put in hour after hour of hard work on the court to hone his game as best he could, Walsh said.
It was slow going at first. The first season, the boys didn’t win a game. The next year, the boys won a couple of games, and the year after they won their first local tournament.
Walsh attributes their success over the years to their ability to work together as a team.
“I’m a big team guy, even at work,” said Walsh. “Teamwork is a big thing. And right from the start I told them, I don’t care who scores the point, I don’t care who gets the rebound, I don’t care who gets the assist, I don’t care who does anything, I just know that somebody has got to do it, and we need 10 guys who can do it all. Between all of us, if we do it together, we’ll get farther. I always told them team stands for ‘Together Everyone Achieves More.’ That was the motto right from the beginning.”
Over the years, the boys came to love and respect both their coaches. Between the semi-final and championship game on Sunday past, the five Grade 12 students presented the couple with a thank you card.
“We opened the card and there were some really, really heartfelt comments about how we were like a part of their family and how we made a difference in their lives,” said Walsh. “The two of us were in absolute shambles, we were crying our heads off by the time we got halfway through the card, let alone by the time we finished it, over what these five young fellows wrote, these 17-year-olds.”
Walsh said when he looked up from the card, the young fellows were crying, and some of their parents were crying as well.
“It really, really hit hard, that this was going to be the end,” said Walsh. “I’ve never seen 17-year-old boys show that much emotion.”
“Over the years, you hope you’re making a difference in these young fellows lives,” said Walsh. “But some of the comments we’ve got from the guys, and their parents, about what a difference we’ve made in their lives over the last eight years, and how they’ll never forget us, that’s what makes it worthwhile. You’ll put every hour of your life into that if you know you’re making a big difference in people’s lives. And that’s a big deal when they’re 16 and 17 years old.”
After this display of gratitude, winning the championship game against Baccalieu Collegiate of Old Perlican was just the icing on the cake.
“We kind of knew who we were going to play in the championship, and we prepared for about 12 weeks for that one specific team, and how we were going to play them,” said Walsh. “And together over those 12 weeks we came up with five or six different strategies that we were going to use. We were going to throw so much at them that honestly, none of us had a doubt that we were going to figure them out.”
He said when the final buzzer sounded, the home crowd went wild — literally.
“It was about 120 decibels for about an hour-and-a-half,” said Walsh. “It was crazy.”
Ashton Crane, one of the graduating players, was awarded the Sportsmanship Award.
The coaches, meanwhile, named all five members of the graduating class as the team’s MVPs.
“We didn’t feel right just picking one player,” said Walsh. “We couldn’t have done it without the five of them.”
