September 10th, 2014 | Uncategorized
Every basketball coach I asked, whether it was Joe Coughlan of the Titans or Coach Mike and Coach Terry of the Mystics, or Gareth Maguire and Deidre Brennan up in Belfast, knew the name Pete Strickland. Pete Strickland, one of my dad’s long time friends, was a professional basketball player in Ireland. I have known Coach Strickland for years and years, practically my entire life, and always knew he’s been involved in basketball since forever whether he was playing or coaching. However I was not unaware (until this summer) that he played in Ireland and better yet was so well known here.
This past weekend my dad came and visited and of course he was curious about whether people knew Pete, so he asked multiple people about Pete Strickland and they ALL knew him! They even had stories about him…Joe Coughlan shared some of the best ones. Pete Strickland was a great player, especially a great shooter, and Joe was sharing a story where one day Pete was showing some drills on how to become a better shooter (one of which was the laying on your back form shooting drill). So while Joe was telling us this story, all of a sudden he gets up, lays on his back and starts practicing his shooting form and shoots the ball in the air. Needless to say, my dad and I both start laughing. This is a very common shooting drill that I have done, but I just thought it was funny how vividly Joe remembered this from years ago and the fact that he laid on his back to demonstrate.
It was great hearing some of the stories from Pete’s career over here in Ireland and I think it’s safe to say that Pete Strickland is a legend here!!!
