As many of you are aware, over the last couple of months I have been writing Senior Championship game previews for the game day program. On the side I have also been interviewing various people within the DVBA community, players, coaches, administrators and the like.

I have recently been fortunate to have been able to get into clubs and speak with people whose commitment and dedication to local basketball has absolutely astounded me. People who put their hands up again and again and again just to help local kids play local basketball.

I have asked around to get names of people who should be interviewed and celebrated for their selfless work and a name that has been put up on several occasions has been Andrew Meikle. Having done some homework, I had written out a large number of questions for Andrew to answer. Unfortunately on Monday of this week Andrew’s illness won the battle and sadly we will never see the answers to the questions about Andrew’s incredible ‘career’, for want of a better word, in basketball.

If we start way back when it all began for Andrew, the wonderful tribute on the Diamond Valley website says he began his involvement with the Apollo basketball club in 2003. If you think about it for a minute, that’s a 10 year commitment to Apollo, not a bad stint in anyone’s language!!

I am left scratching my head for two reasons; firstly how is it possible that one man could have so much passion in something to devote 10 years of his life just making the place tick over. Secondly, if you look around the stadium, I would ask the very serious question as to how many people would have that level of service at a high level?

The Apollo basketball club has known Andrew in any one of a dozen or more different roles. In fact if you go through the list of things people could do in a domestic basketball club, it would be hard to find a position that Andrew hasn’t ticked off.

It’s no secret that getting people to put their hand up in today’s busy world is difficult. Not so with Andrew, his hand was permanently above his shoulder, I suppose for him it just seemed to save a bit of time when the jobs were being handed out! President, Vice President, Boy’s Co-ordinator, Treasurer, Grading Secretary and the list went on.

As many of us know, it is getting coaches, they are the hardest roles to fill, and not just coaches, but quality coaches. Someone to not only fill the spot but teach the kids the fundamentals of the game, the basics required to help not just get them through the season but make them better players, and just maybe, better human beings.

Andrew was happy to coach, happy to do it when his own kids played in the team, and just as happy to fill a hole when a coach couldn’t be found. Coaching kids, any kids, he just loved it. Not only did he do it when others would not, he did it with a smile on his face and he did it well.

Coaching kids is not just about an X and an O on a white board, it is about teaching kids life lessons, and Andrew was one of the better ones. He did it with passion and he did it with a smile on his face, one of the attributes that people remember most about him.

One of Andrew’s greatest attributes was his willingness to step into roles, any role, put to him by the club, even when he probably could have been doing things in his life that were much more interesting. One example was not too long ago and not long after his own kids had finished juniors. As we all know, once your own kids stop playing, that is the red flag to stop your own involvement. Not so Andrew, he simply and quietly let it be known that he was happy to continue in whatever role the club would like him to do. The clear message without words was that he loved being involved, he loved watching kids playing sport and he loved the Apollo basketball club, the people in it and what it represented in the community.

And he was a fighter, when he saw something that he believed in, stand back, because he would generally be able to convince people to his way of thinking. Why? Because he knew what he was talking about, his years and years of experience was an incredible resource to tap into and one that will be sadly missed.

His recent battle with cancer was met with the same fighting spirit he has displayed for years behind the scenes at Apollo. Unfortunately unlike many of the battles that he won over the committee table, this battle was one that got the better of him and he has sadly been taken from us.

I had the good fortune to have a few words with Andrew at the recent junior domestic finals at Diamond Valley. He had just come up the stairs into the foyer as I was headed towards the stairs to go down in the stadium.

I am not sure if he was smiling because Apollo had just had a win or because he saw me. I’m hoping it was both, regardless he wore the Andrew Meikle smile, we had a few quick and quiet words together, and moved on, two ships passing in the night.

Sadly, for me at least, it was the last time I ever spoke with him.

Legend is a word too often used for people who don’t deserve the title. Andrew was not one of those, he was and remains a legend in the eyes of a huge number of people he touched within the Apollo community over a large number of years, and he was and remains a legend within the greater DVBA community.

Long live his legacy. Andrew Meikle, rest in peace, the Screaming Eagle salutes you.