Word By Jenny Yun-Chen Chang/ Taiwan
Photo By Danny Wang/Taiwan
Taipei- After a lopsided lost on their first day of 2018 High School Basketball League (HBL) Quarter-Final Match, seniors of Kaohsiung Municipal Sanmin Home Economics & Commerce Vocational High School (SMVHS) basketball team shed reluctant tears as their angel, Yu-Chuan “Nicole” Hsieh, giving them a telling off.
Nicole is a veteran coach, and arguably one of the most celebrated coaches in Taiwan, who was the first female coach for men’s national team this summer. She leads not only SMVHS, but also I-Shou University varsity team, which plays at University Basketball Association (UBA) Division I. Along with Cisian Junior High, the three schools form a system called “137”, at which players can go all the way to university from junior high.
“There are pros and cons doing so,” Nicole said, “but I’d say there are more advantages than disadvantages.”
Combining all three stages of players, Nicole makes the best use of benefits and resources university teams receive. For example, when I-Shou is invited to tournaments in China, SMVHS players also have the opportunity to broaden their horizons.
“This way,” Nicole said, “we can do the most things with the least budget, and university students are like older brothers in this family, they’ll share their experiences with fellow juniors.”
SMVHS has been floundering the past few years, and starting from the Qualification Stage again still isn’t easy for them, especially after Nicole dismissed five poster children from the team for breaking the team rules.
“Now we need to talk about the cons.” Nicole said, “We have rules, and the rules are different for high school players and university players, but you see, high schoolers see the difference, and they feel unfair.”
Banning high school players from using cell phones is something Nicole insists the most because teenagers only use it to play games and spend too much time on social media. She said that there are computers in every classroom nowadays, if students need to do homework and look something up, that’s enough for them.
“People think we didn’t play well recently because we don’t have enough resources,” Nicole said, “but honestly, we have more resources than our Golden Age. Kids nowadays come from better environment, and parents are more supportive, which is good, but kids become ‘weaker’, both in daily life and on court.”
Since Nicole believes “Nurture over Nature”, she considers virtue more than talents, but sometimes it’s more than attitude and effort. To Nicole, these considerate, obedient players follow instructions, but they aren’t aggressive and confident enough.
“They aren’t like me.” Nicole said, “There’s a lot of heartache involved in playing this way, and I feel compassion for them. They need to be more courageous.”
In Nicole’s philosophy, when players step into the court, she wants them to eat well, sleep well and train well. It’s just harder when they lack talents.
“I don’t think talented people leave Kaohsiung,” Nicole said, “but I think kids here don’t like playing basketball as much. You see, there are more Division II teams, and there are less tournaments in Kaohsiung. We usually take everyone from Cisian as long as they’re willing to come, and when they don’t have talented players, we can only try to prepare ourselves better.”
Even if training with university team makes SMVHS one of the strictest teams, parents’ sponsorship is still needed for them to play outside of Kaohsiung.
“This is what I want to do,” Nicole said, “so I’m able to embrace whatever the result is. I’m okay with it, but I’m not happy. Seeing them suffer, I’m not happy. Who doesn’t get nervous? Yet you can’t forget your endeavor. Knowing that they would burst into tears, I’d rather we didn’t win the critical game against Cheng Kung Senior High School, which qualifies us here at the Quarter-Final Match.”
SMVHS has gone to great lengths to prove themselves. Meanwhile, Nicole told her players that she still sees the biggest value even in this tragic game, and asked them at least not discourage themselves on the court.
Even though SMVHS is undergoing an inevitable difficult process, Nicole’s caring heart still warms her students in many different ways. A notable feature is the animals they keep at their gym. They now have three pigs and five dogs (There were eight dogs once.), and except one Rottweiler given by Nicole’s brother, all the other dogs were stray dogs.
“A mother dog came to school giving birth to eight puppies,” Nicole said, “we kept some while giving to others, and we also adopted several when we traveled for tournaments in Chiayi and Taipei.”
By taking care of the pets together as a family, players learn responsibility. Nicole’s actually surprised that all these big boys are willing to feed and wash the dogs, and she really appreciates their help.
Talents are important, but that doesn’t mean everything. Without talented players, SMVHS is still working hard for next year, and life teaches more lesson this way. “Nurture over Nature!” We don’t know how much longer Yu-Chuan Hsieh will coach SMVHS, but as long as she’s still leading, she’ll continue being her students’ angel.