A solid basketball coach finds the right mix both on the floor and at courtside.
Assistant coaches Steve Lloyd and Brady Byam joined Foothills Falcon head coach Amron Gwilliam two years ago and it’s proved to be a winning combination.
“I got to know Amron when my son Matt was playing here and we had agreed I wouldn’t help coach until Matt was done with basketball,” Lloyd said. “That’s when I started working with Amron and it’s been a huge blessing for me.”
Lloyd was part of the St. Francis Xavier X-men in Nova Scotia basketball squad in his younger days, however he didn’t get on the court.
“I lacked three things, size, talent and athletic ability, but other than that I was pretty exceptional,” Lloyd said with a laugh.
He would later be a graduate assistant at St. FX before coaching high school ball in Nova Scotia and in the Toronto area.
“I’ve been blessed to coach with some very good people,” Lloyd said. “The appeal to coaching high school basketball is it is such a formative time in the players life. To be able to give them feedback on life skills and the big picture is very appealing as an educator and a coach.”
Lloyd is in his fourth-year with the Falcons. He said Gwilliam’s program goes beyond winning games but to “work with them to help their lives… To see what these young kids go on with in their careers is very rewarding.”
He called Gwilliam one of the “best preparatory coaches around.”
Byam brings some homegrown talent to the Foothills floor. He is a 2002 graduate of Foothills Comp and played two years with the Falcons (He took his Grade 11 year at LCI). He went on to play with the Lethbridge Collegiate Kodiaks and the U of C Dinos.
He’s in his second-year as an assistant with the Falcons.
“I knew at some time I had to give back because of all the coaches who have given up their time to get me to the point where I got,” Byam said. “When I was done, I said to myself I am going to help these kids become the best people and basketball players they can because I’ve been there.”
He and his family moved back to Okotoks and watched his alma mater play in the Falcons Classic four years ago. He helped Gwilliam at tryouts and zones the following year, and became an assistant for the 2015-16 season.
“I love coaching – I love it as much as when I played,” said Byam, who coached young players in OMBA before joining the Falcons. “The idea of grinding out and improving every day, I love it — the challenge of taking a team past its potential.”
He said Gwilliam is the X’s and O’s guy, the guy who watches film and has the players ready.
“I am more of a player development guy – how to screen better, how to read that better, what play should have been made,” Byam said. “Plus I am the rah-rah guy.”
But there’s never any doubt as to who is the boss.
“Amron handles the game management, substitutions and stuff like that with our suggestions,” Lloyd said.
Falcon Adam Pahl said the coaching he has received has helped him earn a scholarship to UNBC in the fall.
“I lucked out with the coaching staff here,” Pahl said. “I think it is one of the best in Alberta, everybody brings something unique – it’s been really good for my development.”
He said the coaching was process-based to make him a better player.
“They were always preparing me for the next level,” he said.
Falcons forward David Kent-Canalejo’s first love is on the soccer pitch, but the support he received at Foothills helped turn him into a starting forward on the provincial-qualifying team.
“They helped me feel comfortable and taught me a lot to get me where I am now,” Kent-Canalejo said. “Every practice, Brady would pull me aside and tell me what I had to do better. Steve makes jokes every now and then to keep players calm, but when we need to be focused he gets us focused for the games.”
