John Bunyan has seen it all in Scottish basketball and is convinced the sport is in great shape as London prepares to host next year's Olympic Games.

Bunyan, head coach and club secretary at Falkirk-based Clark Eriksson Fury, well remembers the halcyon days of the sport in Scotland in the 1980s when the likes of Murray International Metals and Team Solripe were regularly playing in front of four-figure crowds.

One of his sons, Keith, started out as a ballboy for the Falkirk-based Team Solripe and went on to full international level.

If there is not the same influx of American players there were in the Scottish game when the likes of Alton Byrd and Bobby Kinzer graced Scottish courts, Bunyan argues that the level of home-grown player has never been higher.

That is testament to the fact that there are so many Scots now on American high school or college scholarships in America at present - Fury themselves have former junior men's team players Jonny Bunyan (John's youngest son), David Anderson, Ali Fraser and Cameron Buchan on American programmes.

"These players have been awarded scholarships and selected to go and are playing at a very high standard, the coach points out.

"It is a vindication of what we are doing in Scottish basketball if players are going to the States on a regular basis.

“A few clubs are doing a lot to develop players such as ourselves, City of Edinburgh and St Mirren and I know Scottish rugby through the cashback scheme is looking at giving money back to the clubs.

"I think there is a case for basketball to identify proven clubs who have continually produced players to put some money back in their direction.

“Clubs are the lifeblood of any sport and I think they deserve to get something back for the work they do as it is becoming increasing costly. 

"We work closely with the Active Schools programme and work hard on talent identification from an early age. We are looking at their interest, potential and athleticism and we have six development squads before we feed them into the national league teams.

“The club has been going for 20 years but it is only in the last eight to ten years that we have built a good structure of development.

“We work a lot at grass-roots level and there is a lot of competition from different sports for young players. I’m all for young players trying different sports and finding what is best for them.

“Basketball is an exciting sport - it is fast and there is high scoring and requires a lot of different skills. It is also a team sport and I think youngsters enjoy the team camaraderie which maybe give it an edge over individual sports like athletics and swimming."

Bunyan took Fury to the Scottish League title in 2001 - the first time they had won it since Kevin Cadle as in charge of Team Solripe - and the team, in a transition year and having lost players to America, finished just a point behind champions City of Edinburgh Kings this season.

"Ten years ago, there was a story saying, for Kevin Cadle read John Bunyan, and I had a laugh about that," Bunyan continues.

“As well as having the high-profile Americans in those days, teams like Solripe and MIM had four or five good Scottish national players and dual nationals.

“When David Murray pulled out and went to football, it changed everything but the standard is still decent in Scotland - David Foster who plays for us and was top league scorer, played at NCAA level, Edinburgh Kings have some good foreign students and Glasgow University had some good quality Lithuanian players this season.

“We also have the Rocks and they have done well to keep competing at a high level in Scotland as it is not cheap to run a basketball team.

“Even our own club, with six teams, costs £20,000 a year to run and that’s just for hall hire and referees’ costs.

“That is likely to go up for next season as free lets to bona fide clubs for Under-16 players is going to stop and that will mean our hall lets will go up from £1,000 a month to £2,000.

“It seems that the clubs are being penalised instead of rewarded for all the hard work they are putting in to develop youngsters. Councils should be supporting clubs like ourselves, Falkirk Victoria athletics and Falkirk Otters swimming and not make it more difficult.

“We have been here for a long time and have three men’s teams and three women’s teams so there are a lot of players involved.

“It is too easy to fill up halls with five-a-side football for casual players in their thirties or forties who are not putting anything back into developing youngsters.

"Facilities are a big issue - when you go to the States, to other countries in Europe or to the likes of Australia, you see how the facilities compare.

“But it is not just that, it is the time allocated to PE where here we talk about one or two hours a week for pupils whereas in European countries and in America it is one to two hours a day.

“It’s ludicrous and we’re only playing at sport in this country. It’s worse at primary school level and the new schools that are being built seem to have smaller and smaller halls that double as dining halls. So it is even an issue of whether you can play basketball in the hall.

“The outdoor facilities are also being squeezed. I’m not sure the Olympics or Commonwealth Games will change things much.” 

RM

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