Tyrone Watson: Transitioning from Player to Coach

The transition from player to coach is a process that is not as effortless as many would like to believe. As a player, you are responsible for managing yourself: your emotions, your work ethic, and your play. But as a coach, many more factors come into effect. You are responsible for managing an entire team filled with unique individuals who come from all different walks of life, who have different learning styles, personalities, and egos. You need to be able to have tough conversations and make difficult decisions, while simultaneously gaining the respect and trust that is all-too-important for coaches to acquire from their players. The job isn’t for everyone and requires an exceptional person to fit the bill, and former River Lions forward Tyrone Watson does that exactly. 

The Hamilton-Ontario native is described by many as a selfless player and natural leader who can make any team better with his presence. Watson spent the majority of his professional basketball career playing in the East Coast of Canada, first, for the Halifax Rainmen, then for the Rainmen’s supplant, the Halifax Hurricanes, where in his last full season he averaged an impressive 13.5 points per game. Then, after spending a season with St. John’s Edge, Watson made the move back to Ontario and signed to the River Lions for their 2020 season. 

Watson was more than happy to join the River Lions, where he was able to reconnect and play with old friends, be coached by his long-time friend, Head Coach Victor Raso, whom he had grown up with and played against in high school basketball, all while giving him the opportunity to play close to home.  

“It was kind of a no-brainer [for me to sign with the River Lions]. It’s a family-oriented type of organization with good people from top to bottom who were running the show” said Watson. 

The season that Watson spent with the team ran under unique circumstances due to COVID-19 restrictions. In July 2020, all seven CEBL teams faced off in a round-robin competition featuring 26 games and a single-elimination playoff. The River Lions were beat out by early August, and by late August, Watson had accepted a position with Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia as an Assistant Coach for the X-Men. 

Although Watson was planning on becoming a coach one day, he didn’t plan on it happening so soon. 

“It wasn’t the ideal transition that I would have liked. I would have liked to play one more season and then go into coaching, but because of COVID, it kind of backed everything up and delayed everything” Watson said. “But this transition for me made a lot more sense for my career and financially, and for what I wanted to do down the road after basketball, so I kind of just jumped on it and took a head start.” 

Although Watson was thrust into his coaching career earlier than expected, he was still excited to start this new chapter of his life and felt confident in his abilities to succeed in his new role. 

“I’ve always admired coaching. I’ve always admired learning. I’ve always admired teaching. I’ve always admired different people’s perspectives. I have a lot of respect for coaches because it’s not an easy job” Watson said. “But having player experience, and playing and being around a bunch of coaches from all over the world and travelling and basketball; I feel like those experiences can make the transition much easier for me, and I know how to handle certain types of situations where maybe some people would struggle.” 

The decision to coach at Saint Francis Xavier University was one that simply made sense to Watson, who now regarded the East Coast, and Nova Scotia specifically, as his second home. 

“I like to say ‘We The East!’ I’ve been there for quite a while and it’s basically my home now. It’s my home away from home. During my playing career, I think I was there for four and a half, or five years” Watson said.

Another factor that attracted Watson to the position was the fact that StFX University is only a two-hour drive away from Halifax. Watson has gained some name recognition in Halifax and surrounding areas, so the move to Antigonish, Nova Scotia was a comfortable decision. 

Although Watson now has a few months of coaching experience under his belt, his quick transition from player to coach hasn’t exactly caught up with him yet. 

“Sometimes when the guys are scoring I’m jumping up and down and cheering, and I’m trying to remember ‘hey, I’m a coach, I can’t be jumping up and going crazy and acting a fool’ because it looks a way and is kind of disrespectful to opponents and stuff like that. So, I’m still learning that part of it because I’m still a player at mind and I’m not really a coach at heart yet, so I catch myself when I’m in the moment, but hopefully people can catch me too because I just get overexcited and overjoyed” Watson explained. 

But there are many advantages to still being a player at heart. Watson’s age, as well as his continued passion for play, has allowed him to find his niche within the StFX coaching staff, where he acts as a player/mentor/coach, all rolled into one. 

“I think more-so the players benefit from having a player-coach instead of a coach-coach because I’m just fresh out of playing, so there’s a lot of things that we talk about that they wouldn’t necessarily talk about with Coach” Watson said. “So I can relate to them in that way because I’m a little bit closer to their age and I understand the grind and the struggle and the blood, sweat, and tears that you have to put in to get better. Evidently I’m kind of like a big brother to them because they go through these experiences and these trials and tribulations, and sometimes they don’t know how to attack the situation with an open mind and make these type of decisions, and as someone whose been there on the bad side of it and the good side of it, I’m there to kind of coach them and mentor them and guide them into the right direction.” 

Even though Watson has taken on his new coaching role, that doesn’t mean that his playing career is entirely over. 

“I thought about it, and I’m not officially retired, but in the sense of a basketball season that would commence during the school year, you could say I’m retired” Watson said. “But if it comes to the summer, I still think I can help out in some way. I’m not going to obviously be trying to play forty minutes and be the Lebron James of the team, but I can be there more-so for moral support or for fifteen minutes if the guys need me. I guess you could say I’m retired for regular season play but I’m active for the summer, for now at least.”

As for the future, Watson is committed to learning everything he possibly can in his Assistant Coach position, working his way up the ladder, and then eventually securing himself a Head Coach position. 

“I know this isn’t an easy profession. Especially for an assistant to kind of step in right out of playing and make a name for yourself, and obviously you’re going up against people who have a lot of coaching history who are assistants who haven’t been able to get a head coaching job, so there’s a pecking order that I have to follow. But I believe that having success overall throughout my playing career and bringing that winning mentality to the coaching staff, and then eventually making our program win, that that’ll show for itself” Watson said. “However long it takes, I’m going to get there eventually. I don’t know when that is, but hopefully soon.”