SARNIA – When one door closes, another opens.
After completing his final year of playing eligibility with the Lambton Men’s Basketball Program this past season, Tyler Grevers will make the move towards the end of the bench where the coaches sit.
Grevers has been named an Assistant Coach for the Men’s Basketball Program, and will now coach alongside James Grant and Keith Concisom, both of whom coached Grevers for four years with the Lions.
“I’m looking forward to this transition and coaching at the college level,” said Grevers. “Obviously, it’s going to be a big transition going from being on the court and playing with the guys last season to now coaching some of them.”
“Having coached some of these guys before they got to Lambton, it’ll be fun to see their careers progress and how far they can go here.”
Grevers makes the transition to coaching at the collegiate level after having played five years of post-secondary basketball in Southwestern Ontario across both the OCAA and OUA. Grevers, who is originally from Woodstock began his collegiate career with the Lions back in 2017-18. His first stint with the Lions came to a close in 2019-20, right before the COVID-19 pandemic.
After graduating from the Sports & Recreation Management Program at Lambton College, Grevers then transferred to the University of Windsor. He played one season for the Lancers under Head Coach Chris Cheng while he completed his university degree.
After graduating from Windsor, Grevers’ road led him back to Sarnia and the Lions for his final year of post-secondary eligibility this past season, bringing a fitting end to a five-year playing career.
Outside of college, Grevers has gained coaching experience at various levels. He coached the Oxford Attack U19 Program, which produced several members of the current Lambton Men’s Basketball roster. That also put Grevers in the unique situation of suiting up alongside guys that he’s helped to coach outside of the college realm.
Grevers has also stepped in and helped coach the Lambton Junior Lions in their inaugural season this year around his school, work, and basketball schedules.
With all his experiences in tow, Grevers knows that he can draw on them at any point, and he understands that they will help ease the transition from being a player to being a coach.
“Having seen things at different levels and how different coaches operate is going to be a big help,” added Grevers. “It’s going to be a big help having seen the way these programs have been run and operated, and the difference in coaching versus playing”
“I know this program inside and out, having been here for three years at the start and then coming back for one more this past year. At Windsor playing under Coach Cheng, I was able to pick his brain about a lot of things at the National level, and I was able to take everything that I’ve learned into my time with the Oxford Attack and the Lambton Junior Lions this year.”
While he is excited about making the transition to coaching after closing out his playing career in a Lions uniform, it may take some time for Grevers to shed the itch of wanting to be out on the court as opposed to leading drills on the sidelines.
Grevers played in 17 of 18 regular season games this past year, and while he’ll still want to be out there as much as possible, he understands that his role has changed and is going to do his best to take it all in stride and keep things under wraps.
“It’s going to be a tough transition,” said Grevers with a smile. “You obviously want to be on the court as much as possible, but now I have to control myself and make sure that the guys get the proper amount of reps.”
“Moving forward, I’m going to just take it all in stride. One of the biggest challenges is going to be how they see me after having been a teammate, although I was a leader on the team. But, it’s going to be a change. You can joke around with your teammates a little bit more. On the coaching side, we’ll see how that goes.”
Coach Grant recruited Grevers out of high school and has seen him become a focal point of the Lambton College community over the years. He shares a mutual excitement with Grevers about him joining the coaching staff moving forward.
“I couldn’t be happier with adding Tyler to our coaching staff moving ahead,” said Grant. “Tyler has shown that he really is someone who puts other people first, both as an athlete and as a member of our student council.”
“He has really turned into a strong member of our Lambton College community over the years. He’s excelled both socially and academically at Lambton, and can lead future players down the same path that he took.”
While he won’t make his bench debut as an Assistant Coach until the fall, Grevers is diving right into things on the recruiting trail for the Lions as they look to build for the future. Grevers will be in Hamilton this weekend at the Hamilton All-Star Classic, which will be taking place at Cathedral High School on Saturday, March 22nd.
For more information, or for any media inquiries within Lambton College Athletics, please contact:
Tyler Bennett
Lambton College Sports Information & Marketing Coordinator
tyler.bennett@lambtoncollege.ca