Photo is courtesy of the Wildhawks official website - www.Wildhawk.ca

 

Local basketball guru Dave MacNeil is about to make his annual pilgrimage down to Durham, North Carolina as a guest coach at the legendary Mike Krzyzewski’s summer camp at Duke University.

It’s his 24th such trip. But this visit will be extra special, considering how hot the hardwood game is these days in Canada thanks to the Toronto Raptors.

MacNeil wanted to purchase a We The North t-shirt to wear at the camp to remind his colleagues and campers where he is from and where the current NBA championship team resides.

Upon entering the sports store for his souvenir hunt, MacNeil witnessed an employee open a fresh box of 36-championship Raptors’ hats. He picked one out for himself and another for a friend. Before he could contact his bud to see if he wanted one, the remaining lids were long gone.

 

“Hearing [Raptors analyst] Leo Rautins speak on the broadcasts over the past few weeks and how emotional is something that struck me. He was because he remembers,” MacNeil said.

 

“I remember when Leo was playing high school basketball [at St. Mike’s in Toronto] and then at Syracuse University. He was the best player in Canada, and all the obstacles you had to fight for the game because basketball was a secondary sport in this country. It’s always been hockey, hockey, hockey.

 

“There is a lot of pride to see them come all this way and have all this success. A lot of people thought this would never happen.”

 

MacNeil doesn’t need a Raptors championship trophy to speak passionately about basketball.

 

He is Mr. Basketball in Waterloo and has been for decades.

 

I’ve known him for 40 years when we were fellow students at St. David. I’ve always admired his zeal for life and basketball.

 

But what I didn’t know was how he fell for the game. For me, it was Mike Moser in the mid-1970s. If you don’t know the story, Moser was the Leo Rautins back in his day, and he was a K-W native out of Forest Heights Collegiate.

 

He was with the 1974-75 University of Waterloo Warriors when he fell ill during an exhibition tour in St. Petersburg, Florida and died after a week in the hospital. He was diagnosed with endocarditis, a rare heart inflammation.

 

Devastated, Warriors standouts Bill Robinson, Art White and captain Phil Scholte carried on. It was Phil Goggins from off the bench who scored the championship-clinching buzzer-beating jumper to beat Manitoba 80-79.

 

MacNeil, however, didn’t get the basketball bug until the following year. His brother Gerard, two years older, was a star at St. David.

 

Dave remembers following around his brother in the summer of 1976. Gerard promised his brother a quarter if he could make three left-handed layups in a row. They worked together on the skill on an outdoor court that was part of the townhouse complex the MacNeils lived at the end of Albert Street, Dave did it.

 

“A quarter back then got you a pop and a bag of chips,” Dave recalled. “When I went to St. David for grade 7 the next year, I was the only one my age who could make a left-handed layup.”

 

Dave was so good back then it wasn't long before he was moved up to play with his older brother’s team. Playing with older athletes never hurt a younger player’s development. Dave always has preached that notion.

 

He went on to play significant roles for basketball teams at St. Jerome’s High School and later WLU.

 

It was at Wilfrid Laurier he met his wife Ruth, a volleyball player. It’s still cool to this day for the MacNeils to have breakfast or lunch at Angie’s Kitchen. In a corner of the restaurant, there is Dave in a WLU basketball team photo, a few feet away from Ruth and her volleyball teammates.

 

After his playing days concluded, Dave had the brainwave to start Wildhawk Basketball, a year before the Raptors played their first game. He grew the game in the area, and now the game has thanked him in return with the Raptors recent success.

 

“The impact already has happened, and I’ve seen it grow the last few years with the Raptors being successful, finished No. 1 in the league even though they didn’t make the NBA Finals,” he said.

 

“The impact now has increased dramatically. I’ve seen early registrations go way up, and I’ve seen parents registering their kids younger. We used to start with, and now we start with six-year-olds, and that younger division, that younger division has really exploded. It sold out two months before it did last year and that will be even sooner this year.”

 

Enrolment in his youngest group expanded from 80 to 120 a year ago and already 120 this year.

 

“It’s been ongoing the last few years, but with this recent success it will be even more impactful,” MacNeil said.

 

It used to be at Wildhawk, some of the students pretended to be Steph Curry, honing their shot from beyond the three-point arc. That is no longer the case. Now it’s all about the Raptors.

 

MacNeil recalled at a recent camp for guards for players between grades 3 and 6 he noticed that each youngster sported some Raptors garb. There wasn’t a Curry jersey in sight.

And instead of yelling “Wildhawk” in unison after breaks, it now was “Let’s Go Raptors.” Hmm, wondering if Dave can get his campers at Duke to do the same this weekend.