Shining stars remember school coaches who provided spark

Todd MacCulloch remembers going into teacher Doug Fraser’s office and being the target of one of his corny jokes.

Like this one:

“He’d point to your facial hair and say, ‘Oh, is that a summer mustache?’ And you’d say, ‘What do you mean?’ And he’d say, ‘You know, some are here, some are there.’ “
                                                                                     
Ba da bing.

OK, so Fraser wouldn’t make it on the comedy circuit, but he was awfully good at his real job as a physical education teacher and basketball coach when MacCulloch attended Shaftesbury High School in Winnipeg.

“He really did have an open-door policy in his office,” MacCulloch said in a phone call from his Philadelphia home. “He had a nice comfy couch and you could always go in and sit down and get a joke or you could talk to him about your problems.

“He was just a very likeable guy. We had a great relationship.”

It was at Shaftesbury in the early 1990s when MacCulloch began developing a talent on the court that eventually led to him being the first -- and still only -- Manitoban to play in the National Basketball Association.

He credits Fraser and coach Richard Gooch (who was a principal in another division) with helping him reach a level he never dreamed he could.

“(Fraser) just made me believe in myself, that I could really be as good as I wanted to be,” MacCulloch, 32, said.

“I think he recognized in me some abilities and he nurtured them. Without that support, I think I would have become stagnant.”

Fraser also reinforced what sports are supposed to be about, especially at the school level.

“He knew how to make basketball fun,” MacCulloch said. “I think he realized that I needed that, too, that there’s enough stresses in a high school kid’s life in terms of academics and social things.”

After playing college ball at the University of Washington, MacCulloch spent five seasons in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets. He sat out the last season because of foot neuropathy, a painful condition that also affected his balance. Despite surgery and various treatments, he was forced to retire in the fall of 2004.

During that time, Fraser and Gooch were part of his support network. He’s still in regular contact with them and they even attended his wedding in 2000. Fraser is now retired and Gooch is principal of Valley Gardens, a middle school in the River East Transcona School Division.

MacCulloch also credits the pair with helping him become a better person.

“They were both great role models,” said MacCulloch, who helps fund the Todd MacCulloch Hoop School, a yearly basketball camp for boys and girls aged 12-14 from 10 Winnipeg inner-city schools.

“I think giving back to the community are some of the values they instilled. They taught us how to get along as teammates and how to play together and to have discipline and be on time.”

He also appreciates the time the pair devoted to coaching.

“When you’re a kid, you don’t realize the commitment that people make,” MacCulloch said. “My wife Jana and I have a new baby (daughter Carmen, born on Feb. 6) and now I realize how precious people’s time is.
 
“I wish that I had appreciated it better, the commitment that teachers make when they go above and beyond and stay for practices and games and invest time in kids’ lives.”

MacCulloch is in his fifth season as a radio colour commentator for the 76ers. His feet still bother him, but he’s trying some alternative treatments and said there has been progress.

University of Winnipeg volleyball player Jayme Menzies has also kept up a relationship with one of her former high school coaches.

During her time at Neelin High School in Brandon, basketball coach Mike Hill helped her in the classroom and the gym.

Although she was in French immersion and didn’t take Hill’s world issues, history or politics courses, he kept on top of what she and the other players were doing in class, she said.

Hill would talk to the players’ teachers and make players do homework instead of going to practice or a game if they weren’t doing well in school.

“I think it taught me a bit of perspective,” Menzies, 21, said. “I could see how an athlete could come out of high school and think that just ‘cause they’re great at a sport that’s the be all and end all and they’ve got it made because of that.

“I realized that sport is the fun side … but when it comes down to it, academics are going to get you places. And (Hill) was all for that.”

When it came time for Menzies to go to university, Hill - who’s now retired -- taught her another lesson, this one about integrity. 

She wasn’t sure whether to pursue basketball or volleyball and Hill, who was helping out the University of Manitoba women’s basketball program, sat down with her and they went through the pros and cons.

“As much as I thought he might be, he wasn’t biased toward basketball at all,” she said. “He encouraged me to do anything that I thought would make me happy.

“He is truly a role model as a coach and a teacher and a person to me. He’s like a father figure.”

Menzies just completed her fourth season with U of W’s volleyball squad and has decided to forego next season to focus on getting a biopsychology degree.

She may go into psychiatric nursing and Hill could impact that path, too.

“He’s going to try and talk to some people that he knows that are in psychiatric nursing and see if I can get interviews with them,” she said.

“He’s being really helpful and I appreciate that a lot.”