Jacob Harkin has just turned 19 and is following a path that has led him to coaching and teaching. He met with Sara Browne to talk about his love of basketball and Lismore's basketball community which he has been part of from a young age.

I was born in Lismore and then moved over to Casino when I was younger. We lived there for about 10 years but always played basketball in Lismore. Mum and Dad worked in Lismore and travelled back and forth then eventually moved back to Lismore when I was in year four. I went to St Mary’s Casino then St Carthages for primary school and then Trinity for high school.

Basketball has been part of my life for a long time. Dad played so I got brought up with it. I think I’ve been playing since I was about four or five years old. 

I started in Aussie Hoops which is for little kids and then progressed through the levels. It was something I wanted to do growing up but then I developed a passion for coaching. In April I went to Wagga for the North Coast Academy Games and coached down there for the U14 girl's team. They went pretty well – three wins, three losses. 

It’s a region which ranges from Port Macquarie up to Byron Bay. We didn’t get many training sessions because of the floods. We were meant to have three or four sessions but we ended up with two. We were pretty unprepared compared to some of the other teams but we got through it.

There are courses for coaching. I’ve done the level one course a couple of years ago in Coffs Harbour. I’m hoping to do my level two this year in Lismore when it’s on in August. We learn from other people too. And you learn through playing. I know I’ve learnt through playing from Jacob Liu who is also at the Lismore Stadium. David McWhirter also helped me grow into who I am as a coach. He was my coach for the rep side in U16s. Coaching with others too, I’ve been learning a lot from Alvin, he’s the HPP coach (high-performance program) from Byron.

I’ve played in rep teams for Lismore – junior rep for the NJL, National Junior League. I played in that for a while. I played in U20s this year, we went to Sydney representing Lismore. We went to Minto and Sutherland. I think we ended up as 5th, we just missed out on the semi-finals by two or three points.

I was influenced by my Dad but certainly grew a bigger passion for the game as I grew up and life went on. When I was in high school, I spent five or six days a week with basketball, whether that be at school or at the stadium. Even in primary school, Dad took me up to the Gold Coast to play, across from Casino to Ballina as well to play in their junior comp, just playing everywhere to get into it as much as possible.

The biggest thing was trying to balance it out with school work. It’s a bit better now that it's just uni. Even though uni is still a lot of work, it's not six hours for five days a week like school. You can be more flexible.

I’m studying to be a secondary teacher for PE and Geography at SCU. I’m on campus now. We were online for the first term. Teaching came along with coaching, I think. Teaching is a good outlet because I can teach school but also continue with basketball coaching within a school and doing different things connected.

There was a lot of teachers who were good mentors for me. Kelly Coates is a basketball coach and PE teacher, she was a good influence. I had her as a teacher in year seven. Throughout high school, there were good senior teachers. Alyssa O’Reilly was a good teacher for me. Every teacher is different, they teach different ways that work for different people.

My Mum works in admin for Essential Energy. My Dad, before he passed away, worked at the hospital, he was a wardsman. He played basketball for Lismore when they were called Lismore Lakers. He coached me in Aussie Hoops and U12s and now I’m actually coaching the U16s alongside his old coach, Greg Cox.

Dad grew up in Lismore, lived on Ballina Road. Mum was from Grafton and came across here for uni, that’s how they met. Dad didn’t go to uni but he was friends with people who did. I have a little brother. He’s not a player or coach but he referees mainly. He plays socially but he’s not into the rep side of it.

I enjoy watching all sport. I watch rugby league. I don’t play it but it's fun to watch. Lismore has travelled a long way with basketball. No one from Lismore has made the NBA or anything like that but we’ve had good teams. A couple of years back the U16 girls won the State Cup. We’ve been fairly successful. They were runners-up in the QLD Cup as well. We’ve also had a fair few successful players come through. It's not a big part of the town like cricket or baseball but it's definitely growing.

We’ve only got a small space, two courts. A lot of other towns, like Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie, have four to six courts. They might be a bigger population but it is hard to keep growing with just the two courts we have now. We’re continuing to try and get more courts and grow. I think they apply for grants through the government and liaise with different people. I’m not too much involved in that. I’ve only recently become a little bit involved but it’s a big thing the committee have been trying to get for the past couple of years. I think the stadium is leased from the council but we maintain it.

It's never been flooded. I think the floor height is about 16 metres according to that council chart that I’m sure everyone was looking at during the floods. It did get into our carpark, up to the first step. A lot of residents in the area actually parked their cars up in our carpark but the cars still got flooded up to the tyres. I don’t think it went up to the engines of the cars.

We definitely got affected by the flood, not the flood water itself but the run-off from the rain. At the moment, the floorboards of the courts are warping. We’re trying to resolve it in the short term. The run-off of water from the top of the hill behind the stadium is causing the boards to shift. It’s a big job to repair it, I think. The committee is looking at different solutions at the moment.

I had different aspirations for a while. I wanted to be a vet at one stage. I did work experience with a vet and I actually loved doing it but realised how much work it is after hours. Teaching is too. But veterinary science seemed like quite a strain. My uncle once told me you’ve got to choose a job that suits your lifestyle. Obviously, my lifestyle involves a lot of basketball and that involves a lot of afternoon stuff. You can kind of fit that in when you go to school.

I love animals. We’ve got a border collie and a cat and a bird. I’ve had the border for four years now. I had another two dogs before, a lab and a ridgeback cross. I always had pets growing up. I really like dogs the best, to be honest.

I was 12 when my Dad passed away. It was two years after we moved to Lismore. It was sudden. It was a heart attack, coronary heart disease, which we didn’t know he had. It was a build-up in the heart that caused his heart to stop. That was a loss. In a way, it taught me how to do things on my own and become a more independent person as well.

My Mum is involved in basketball too. She’s a part of the committee and she does all the merchandising stuff. She’s always been a part of the stadium since Dad got us into it.

I’ve definitely thought about living elsewhere but I really like the north coast. I feel attached to the area. Obviously, the floods have happened but we’ve got a very resilient town and we’ve got a really strong community. I’ve even noticed it at basketball. The basketball community that I have is really strong and I hope everyone around Lismore has a similar community. I love being around it.

I’ve been to the UK, the UAE and some Pacific Islands like Fiji, for holidays. I’ve never gone overseas for basketball. The furthest I’ve been for basketball would be Sydney for the U20s. I went to Sydney one year for school basketball, we also went to Bendigo and Canberra for the Marist competition.

If the opportunity ever came to coach overseas, I’d definitely take it. You’ve got to take what’s given to you. Opportunities don’t come along all the time so if I ever got the chance to coach or play overseas, I’d jump at it but it’s not something that I’m pursuing.

I turned 19 about a week ago. I finished school last year. I don’t have long-term plans. Sometimes it's good to have a rough plan rather than a strong plan.

The plan at the moment is to finish uni and I want to keep coaching with the team that I currently have throughout their age groups, if possible. I’ve coached them as U14s and now I’ve got them as U16s and I’m hoping to carry on through 18s. I’m not sure what happens after uni. I could stay in Lismore or move away, it just depends what life throws at me.

After uni, I guess I’ll be applying for jobs at different schools and it depends on where the jobs open up. I’d rather stay in the area, the north coast is a great place to live, it's not something I want to run away from. If I moved away, I feel like I’d move back when I’m older.

I do feel a sense of responsibility as a coach and a teacher. You want everyone to think positively. If you’re thinking positively, it’s going to make it better for everyone else. Teaching everyone to be positive and nice to each other is a good thing. You can see it after these floods, people going into other people’s houses to help but then you hear about people stealing things. You’ve got to work on doing the good things rather than the bad, especially in tough times.

We had people in the basketball community in Coffs Harbour driving up to help people in Lismore’s basketball community. It was really nice to see. Rob Linton runs North Coast Basketball. He ran a free clinic to support flood-affected people. He’s done a huge job for our community here. It’s great to see from someone who lives so far away from it.

I definitely think sometimes I can be a role model for some of the young kids which is good. But it’s not something I’m constantly thinking about. It’s something that just happens. I’ve had role models in my life. Coaches and teachers have to be role models for younger generations. They have to set an example of what is right and they’ve got to make sure they’re doing the right thing and being positive.

Hopefully, in the future, I’ll be a parent too, not any time soon.