The Paris Olympics is the culmination of a billion dreams. Athletes along with their entire coaching staff would have spent the past 4 years improving themselves, the result of which will be seen in Paris. While the teams gear up for the ultimate basketball competition, the coaches are unfortunately hidden from the limelight.

Today, EssentiallySports takes a look at one such coach who will fulfill his dream by seeing his mentees ply their trade. He is Australia’s women’s basketball head coach Shannon Seebohm.

Shannon Seebohm: The early years

Seebohm will be dictating the tactics from the sidelines that would fulfill his Australian dream. Growing up Seebohm was an exceptional baller so much so that he also got a chance to represent his country at the  under-19 World Cup. Seebohm since a young age knew what he was made for and how he wanted to accomplish it.

While most youth struggle to fulfill their dreams, Seebohm had no such issues. His balling talents had soon become the talk of the country and he also got a contract with the South Dragons in the NBL. But what happened later completely changed Seebohm’s outlook towards life and basketball in particular.

During one of the training sessions in his rookie year, Seebohm had a cardiac arrest. He collapsed immediately and was helped by one of the staff members who saved his life. This was a major turning point in his life as he vowed never to play basketball again. He got a cardiac defibrillator which is a small device that operates with the help of a battery and controls the heart’s pacing. Seebohm’s career was almost over until he came back again and this time in the role of a coach.

Shannon Seebohm: The transition

As per his LinkedIn account, Seebohm was the head basketball coach at the Sydney University Flames from 2014-16. He was just 26 years old an age where most ballers touch their peak. But Seebohm never let that fact hold him back.

Instead, Seebohm made complete use of his gaming acumen and observation powers. He was awarded the WNBL coach of the year in his debut year, which was a testament to the fact that Seebohm was special. Despite not being able to play basketball, it was his observation and tactics that could intimidate the opponents.

Former Australian star Karen Dalton, who played 252 games with the Opals between 1983 and 1994, praised Seebohm. The 4x World Champion had coached the Sydney Flames from 2001 to 2014. Once Dalton met Seebohm she knew that he was special. She recognized his talent at the Hornsby Basketball Association and also knew that he was in the run for a long game. Thus, Seebohm started earning the respect he deserved from fellow coaches.

It was most probably on Dalton’s recommendation that Seebohm was hired as the next head coach for the Flames. He stayed there for 2 seasons and won 24 games for them. However, the team that emerged as the champions in both the years of his stay with Sydney was the Townsville Fire. Seebohm soon made a switch to Basketball New South Wales Head Performance Coach.

For Seebohm it wasn’t easy to take up the position since he had to interact with a lot of players who were his age. But Seebohm made sure that he tapped into the emotion of his players and understood their perspective. All he wanted was for his players to feel confident in their game and have a positive intent. 

“It’s hard as a 26-year-old to sit a player down and tell them ‘this is the expectations, this is what I need you to do, this is what you’re not doing’,” Seebohm admitted in an exclusive chat with the ESPN. From here on he just kept on ticking his bucket list.

Shannon Seebohm: Life comes a full circle

In August 2019, Seebohm got the chance to be the head coach for Townsville Fire (remember the team that had taken home the WNBL trophy for both years when he was on his first coaching job?). 

The journey has certainly been a learning curve for Seebohm. As per his own admission, he has become better at understanding and forming a solid culture along with improving at knowing how to reach every player and approach them for his titbits of wisdom. “At times to do that you need to be a little bit more demanding and that’s where I think I’ve got a lot better up here (in Townsville),” Seeb0hm admitted.

He fulfilled another of his dreams when he won the WNBL in 2022-23 with Townsville Fire and etched his name forever in the history of Australian basketball with his exemplary coaching skills. A lot many feel that this was due to him considering he had his own journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning all these years. And now stands the final frontier.

Thankfully for Seebohm, he was selected as the head coach for the Australian National team for the upcoming Paris Olympics where he will be reaching another of his dreams of representing Australia as a coach. Nonetheless, Seebohm’s journey tells us that even the wrong routes sometimes lead us to the right paths in life. Hopefully, for his fans, he will help the Opals get a strong spot in the quadrennial event.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.