Inspired by late friend, Mount Saint Vincent coach Mark Forward looks back on 300 career wins
Richard Woodbury | CBC News | Posted: December 8, 2024 10:00 AM | Last Updated: December 8
Forward became the women's basketball coach in 2009 after the team's coach, who was a close friend, died
Inside Mark Forward's cramped office, located next to the gym at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, hangs a banner with the words, "One Way Together."
For Forward, the head coach of the women's basketball team, it's a nod to Dyrick McDermott, a dear friend who died in 2009. The phrase was a cheer started by McDermott that he used during his eight-year run as the women's basketball coach until his death.
"That's the only way we want to approach things," said Forward. "We wanna all be Mystics and we want to all be together and we want to support each other."
In his 15th season coaching the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association team, Forward reached 300 career wins last month.
Coaching the team is a way of honouring his late friend and continuing McDermott's legacy, who had 160 wins and only 17 losses as coach.
"I never wanted to take the program over and fail," said Forward. "It was big shoes to fill."
Forward, a point guard during his playing days at the Mount, played alongside McDermott. Their coach was Rick Plato, who coached the Mystics for 25 years before moving on to coach the Dalhousie Tigers of Atlantic University Sport in 2013.
"It's kind of a standing joke with Mark and I that … he picked out the good things that I did, whatever they happened to be, and he eliminated the bad things, which there were probably quite a few of," said Plato.
Forward said some of the things he learned from Plato — a notoriously demanding but successful coach — were an intense work ethic and to always be prepared.
"And I try to tell our players all the time, you have to be obsessed with winning," said Forward. "Accept outcomes, but be obsessed with it."
Another Plato rule was that players be on time for team events. Actually, they need to be early.
As soon as his playing career wrapped up, Forward started coaching as an assistant with Plato.
One time at a national tournament in Western Canada, Forward said a couple of players arrived one morning at the team bus to head to a game, but realized they had forgotten their shoes in their hotel rooms. To put their minds at ease, Forward collected their room keys and said he'd go get them.
Forward thought the bus wouldn't leave without one of its coaches. He was wrong.
"It was an example," said Forward. "It didn't matter who it was, [at] 10:30 the bus is leaving."
It's a situation the two, who remain close, laugh about today.
Besides coaching with Plato, Forward also coached the men's team at the Technical University of Nova Scotia (TUNS) for a few years.
Taking the reins under tragic circumstances
In 2009, after McDermott died in his sleep, the Mount's athletic director asked Forward if he was interested in taking over the women's basketball team, but he was unsure.
"I was afraid actually because he was such a damn good coach," said Forward.
The team had many fifth-year players who had committed to playing for McDermott, so it was a tricky situation for Forward to inherit as the team grieved with a new coach.
"I think that year I bought more boxes of Kleenex than all the 14 years after that … a lot of emotions and a lot of dedication and [thinking], 'What would Dyrick want you to do? How would Dyrick want you to kind of handle these situations?' A lot of hugs," said Forward.
The team made it to the national championship, but lost in the final.
Forward said he thinks the difficult circumstances of the season sped up his coaching development and helped him learn how to better connect with female athletes.
Amanda Pearcey, co-captain of the women's basketball team, said Forward cares deeply for his players and they do a lot of team-bonding activities.
"He makes it more than basketball," she said. "He makes us feel like we are part of a family, like, we are all together. If we win or we lose, we're doing it together. It's no one's fault [when we lose], it's everyone's fault. Or when we win, everyone's contributing."
'Very exclusive group'
Plato said he's proud of the success Forward has had.
"There are very few coaches across the country that can say that they have 300 [wins]," he said. "I also look at the number of conference championships that he's won. I also look at the number of national medals and banners he's won. So you put it all together and he certainly is in a very exclusive group."
In the Mount gym, banners display the success their different sports teams have had. For Forward, he's played a role in the success of the men's and women's basketball teams.
Asked if he ever looks at the banners and thinks about those teams, he said no. He's too focused on winning the next game.
"I think that when I stop someday, I think that's when it'll kind of hit me that, 'Wow, that was a good run.' But when you're in it, you're just kind of in the day, in the moment," said Forward.
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