Basketball in mourning for player and coach Mark Leader

A champion player and coach, Mark Leader’s impact on basketball in Geelong will only continue to grow as he is remembered after his death.

NBL great and Geelong Supercats legend Mark Leader has been remembered after his death.

Legendary basketball figure Mark Leader is being remembered as a “great, humble human” after his death.

A champion NBL player with Devonport Warriors, Geelong Supercats and North Melbourne Giants, Leader carried on leaving his mark on the sport in a successful coaching career.

He steered the Supercats and Corio Bay Stingrays to success as coach and guided a generation of Geelong players.

Mark Leader coaching Corio Bay in 2016. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Born in Idaho, Leader moved from the United States to Australia in 1982 to continue his basketball career, first playing in the NBL with Devonport.

It was at that club he met his future wife Jill.

The couple would have two daughters, Rachel and Jessica.

Jill said she was ”overwhelmed” with messages from people across the basketball community after Leader’s passing this week, following a long battle with cancer.

All smiles after a big win in 2007.

“I have been overwhelmed by the amount of messages I have got from people who played with him and who were coached by him, who are saying he left a mark on them just by being him,” Jill said.

“A lot of those things weren’t even basketball related.

“He did everything the same. The way he coached and played basketball, he did life.

“He worked hard, he perfected his skills. He treated everyone he played with with respect, so he was consistent and he was who he was. If you got to know him, you were the luckiest person because his friends were so loyal to him and he was very loyal to his friends.”

Damian Armour first met Leader in 1987, when teammates at the Supercats.

Armour described the 327-game NBL star as the ultimate glue guy.

Mark Leader and Jarrod Leonard raise a banner.

Leader could do just about everything on the court and became the first NBL player to have four triple-doubles, as he racked up more than 4000 points in the league and won two championships with the Giants.

“He was just one of those players that you could put into any team and that team is automatically better,” Armour said.

“He didn’t seek the spotlight as a player, he was just solely focused on doing what made the team better and if a coach had a hold to fill, Mark would plug it.”

Having been amazed by Leader’s ability to crystallise basketball “complexity into clarity”, Armour didn’t look far when as chair of the Supercats, he began searching for a replacement for coach Terry Kealey.

Leader shows the way at a clinic.

After a strong stint coaching Ballarat from 1997-00, Leader took charge at the Supercats in 2002, building towards a run of success with three-straight SEABL Eastern Conference titles from 2005-07, and a national championship in 2006.

After departing the Supercats in 2010, Leader joined the Stingrays, where he coached titles in 2013 and 2015.

Geelong United, which runs the Supercats, said Leader “left a lasting impact on the Geelong and wider basketball community for over three decades. His passion for the sport and love for the game was undeniable and can be seen by the number of players, coaches, staff, volunteers and fans he left his mark on”.

In Stingrays colours in 2015. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“There is a whole era of people in that time who are indebted to him for his contribution and time and for what Mark did for them,” Armour said.

Armour had a chance to catch up with Leader recently and enjoyed a long conversation.

“He is just a great, humble human. He is not overbearing or overpowering,” Armour said.

“There are two types of people in this world, there are givers and there are takers and Mark Leader is a giver and a giver who does so unconditionally and he will be missed by a lot of people.”

Jill Leader said her husband was “extremely supportive” of his netballing family and “always the instigator of fun”.

“He was a big influence on (Rachel and Jessica’s) lives and a great role model and we were all best mates,” Jill said.

Originally published as Basketball in mourning for player and coach Mark Leader