Vale John Gardiner
Last Saturday was a sad day for the basketball community and in paricular for our Hawks basketball family, with the untimely passing of our Club great - John Gardiner.
After moving West from Newcastle and with four sons who played basketball, John became an active coach in our Junior Competition for City Beach and Scarborough City Hawks.
In 1989, the State Basketball League was formed and John was appointed the Head Coach of our men’s team and continued to coach the Hawks MSBL in over 550 SBL games and won five championships in that time. He was named the SBL Men's Coach of the year on 3 occasions, with the latest being in his last year of coaching - 2008.
John was the Hawks Director of Coaching for over 25 years - a position he held until his death. He was made a Life Member of the Perry Lakes Hawks in 2004. There are many coaches out there who say if it wasn't for John they would never be coaching. He gave them a start and was always there to mentor and follow their progress.
John was always there when you needed an answer; to settle an argument and to offer his wise words to the next generation coming through. These words we will treasure as we continue his work in our Club.
Our love and support goes out to Peta his wife, Aaron, Heath, Ryan and their families, along with John's extended family.
The Hawks are all the better for having Coach Gardiner in our Club.
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