Jack and master of all trades

Within the ever-changing facade of Pakenham basketball, there has long been a familiar face behind the sport. Ask anyone who knows about Pakenham Basketball, and they will tell you local identity Jack is as much a part of basketball as the words “hoop time” and “slam dunk” are to the game.
Sitting in the café at Pakenham’s home of basketball, Cardinia Life, Jack’s popularity among basketball ranks quickly became obvious.
“Jack! Jack! Jack!” screamed a little girl behind a glass window desperate to get her coach’s attention.
To the delight of the little girl, Jack responded with a generous smile and a wave.
A few moments later, a mother and son walked past. Jack paused mid-interview to greet mum and ask the boy how he was doing.
Jack only had time to catch his breath before he was again sending out another “how ya going?” to a passer-by.
The interview would continue along this trend.
He, especially among kids, is adored. If someone makes the effort to speak to him, Jack is sure to return the favour, even if he did forget what he was saying during the interview.
The reason Jack is such a noticeable figure at Cardinia Life is not because he has striking personal features, rather because of his striking sporting achievements in his home town.
Jack played “500-odd games” of footy for Catani. As a basketballer he admits he was an “outstanding defence player who could not shoot” but one who is more recognised for his administrative and coaching efforts rather than playing.
“It was about 1976 when I joined the Pakenham basketball committee for the first time. And until today, except for last year when I was on the coaching panel, I have always been on the committee,” he said. “President, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, publicity officer, you name it, I have done it over the years,” Jack said.
Jack Vanstone was only 15 when he began playing basketball in the Bunyip football sheds and it was not long before he was called upon to help set up basketball at the PB Ronald Stadium in Pakenham.
Between stints as a draftsman, a draftee in the army and working on the family farm, Jack remained in the top echelon of local basketball.
The self-confessed “sports-mad” man was drafted into the army when he was 19 and spent 18 months at Puckapunyal.
He remembers arriving at the campsite to find it exactly like the army is portrayed in Hollywood. “As you lined up at the barber, you were given the chance of a moderate haircut or a crew cut. I had hair down to my shoulders, so I said I would like a moderate one. They gave me a crew cut. They gave everyone who asked for a moderate cut a crew cut,” Jack said.
When Jack departed from the army he returned to local basketball.
He oversaw the heart of Pakenham basketball transferred from the PB Ronald Stadium to the Pakenham Indoor Sports Complex and it was there he met ex-NBL player and WNBL premiership coach Danny Adams.
After luring Adams to Pakenham, Jack and Adams went about outlining steps that would see Pakenham host a Big V team within 10 years.
Nine years on and Pakenham now has its own Big V team. Incredibly, Jack is looking toward another 10-year plan that is even bolder.
“If we are able to sort out other issues like sponsorship and court issues, believe it or not, our next 10 year plan will be to have our very own NBL team at Pakenham… and I would like to think it could be done without imports,” Jack said.
Many have questioned whether his love for the game would fizzle, but for Jack basketball is a way of life.
“You just do these things. You never actually think about how much time it is consuming, because if your family is in to it as well, then it is just a way of life,” Jack said.
Jack’s family embraced basketball just like he did, with daughter Emma playing high grade competition in her younger years and son Luke making it as far as the Melbourne Tigers training squad.
“I remember Luke being given a training schedule from Canberra and told he must make 100 shots for the next 100 days. If he missed a day, he would not be allowed back, but if he did it every day,he could return.
“I remember on one of those 100 days getting back from a wedding at 1am and after putting the daughter to bed, I turn around and there is Luke in his basketball uniform.
“‘What are you doing?’ I asked. ‘I’ve got to do my program,’ Luke said. ‘At one in the morning? Ok, hop in the car’, so we drove down to the stadium and made 100 shots,” Jack recalled.
“Weeks later he was accepted into the program.”
As anyone with a passion will tell you, the passion you love engulfs and defines you.
The Brad Robbins story is one such example which details the passions held by Jack.
“Brad Robbins was playing under-12s at Dandenong and was having trouble in the team. A number of parents were complaining and he was all set to give the game away and I said ‘nah, don’t give basketball away, come and play in our team in the under-14s.”
“Brad was a real little kid playing in the under-14s and one of the best moments in my life was when Brad made the NBL and his mother wrote a letter to me which I still have framed in my house, saying ‘without you, Jack, Brad would have quit.’ I got a real buzz out of that.”
If there is anything Jack loves more than basketball it is developing basketballers.
“My motto for the past 30 years has been development first, winning second,” he quipped.
It is this type of attitude which saw Jack, who is in charge of coaching and training seven teams on a weekly basis, awarded the greatest increase in membership award on behalf of the Pakenham and District Basketball Association last month.
The award at the Basketball Victoria presentation dinner recognises the significant growth Cardinia Life and Pakenham basketball has achieved over the last year.
“My stock answer to when kids ask will they be able to get a game, is always yes, never no,” he said.
A glance at his “usual” weekly schedule demonstrates the effort Jack puts into his passion.
Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays are filled with coaching and training junior teams, while Wednesdays and Fridays are left open for junior development training.
Wednesdays are also used to coach Pakenham in the Melbourne Metropolitan Basketball League.
And, as if he may be afraid he would have spare time in his week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, Jack helps train and coach Pakenham’s Big V team.
“It’s a full time job,” he remarked.
So after 37 years, is the fire still in the belly?
“Oh yes. I don’t see why I won’t be here in 10 years,” Jack said.
And that’s good news for everybody.