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Alfie Paoletti retires
The Alf
The Speirs Gym was filled with friends, family and colleagues when Alfie Paoletti coached the last basketball game of his career on April 19.
Alfie will be retiring from Selwyn House in December 2018.
An exhibition game between Alfie’s current Juvenile team and a squad of Old Boys drew a large audience of wellwishers and old friends. The play was spirited, with the Old Boys itching to show their old coach that they still have what it takes.
And they did. Experience paid off, as the Old Boys were first on the scoreboard and never let up, finishing with a 15-point lead. Mind you, the oldtimers’ bench was quite long, so they always had a fresh string of subs waiting on the sidelines.
After the game, the crowd retired to Coristine Hall for refreshments and tributes, including a couple of “true stories” courtesy of Alfie’s longtime friend and colleague, Marty Boyle.
Alfie had a couple of stories of his own, like the childhood Sunday dinners when he would race his brother the last hundred metres to Grandma’s house.
“I never won any of those races,” recalls Alfie, “but I’ve been hooked on sports ever since.”
Another longtime colleague, Peter Govan, presented a moving tribute to his friend, “The Alf” at the school’s Athletic Celebration on May 31. “The Alf was well known in the basketball community as a point guard in the powerful Pius programs of the 70s that captured many city and provincial titles,” Govan recalled.
From 1972 to 1977, Alfie attended St. Pius X Comprehensive High School in Montreal when the school had just hired three new Phys-Ed teachers and started a brand-new sports program. Having never played sports before, Alf was a quick study, leading his basketball team to a championship win and being named Tournament MVP in his first year on the team.
After high school, Alfie went to Champlain College for a year and coached at Vanier College for three years.
In 1979 he enrolled at McGill, where he discovered long-distance running, which became his passion. He has since run 26 marathons, recording a personal best time of two hours and 46 minutes. Three years into this phase of his life he competed in the Iron Man in Hawaii.
Alfie worked as an assistant basketball
coach at McGill from 1987 to 1991, as well as at Selwyn House part-time in 1985, becoming full-time two years later. Since then he has been coaching basketball and soccer at every level of school at Selwyn House, putting in 30 years as head coach of senior (Juvenile) basketball.
“We’ve had our good years and bad years,” Alfie admits, but the pace picked up in the late 80s when athletes who are now in the Selwyn House Athletic Hall of Fame began to take the school to the next level. “All of a sudden we were winning championships,” he says.
In 1988, Alfie and Dave Cude’s soccer team beat out 24 schools from across the country to win the CAIS U-13 tournament. On the rugby field, Alfie and Peter Govan have won four senior banners in the past decade.
On the basketball court, this year Alfie took his last Juvenile team into the GMAA finals.
How do today’s students compare to those of 30 years ago? “There are more similarities than differences,” he says.
“Sportsmanship was better in the old days,” he says. Selwyn House teams were “more humble,” as he sees it. “It was more of a meritocracy.”
Today’s kids are more open about showing their emotions, he says, which is great when you’re winning. Not so much when you’re on the losing end. Today’s students, he says, sometimes “need more guidance in navigating the waters of defeat.”
“Sportsmanship is so important for teaching people to be civil,” he adds. “Not necessarily politically correct, but polite. Humility is important in the learning process.”
“We work hard to develop confidence—not merely the appearance of confidence.”
The game has changed a bit from
the coach’s perspective, too, Alfie says. “Coaches always need to reinvent themselves.” At one time, athletes seemed to respect their coaches without questioning their credentials. Today, he says, “You have to earn their respect. In time, you do, but you can’t rest on your laurels.”
“His legacy at Selwyn House is his ability to inspire others, his relationships with the boys, his collegiality and quick
