Atiba Lyons reflects on Sheffield Sharks' season and recruitment plans for next season

He certainly learnt a lot about himself as a coach, even after more than a decade at the helm of Yorkshire’s flagship basketball club.

A season highlighted by long winning and losing runs came to an end against defending champions Leicester Riders over two legs of the BBL play-off quarter-final at the weekend.

Sharks move into the Park Community Arena developed by Canon Medical Systems on the Olympic Legacy Park from next season, a new chapter in the book of a team heading towards the middle of its fourth decade.

But while another season passes without a trophy, the mere fact they reached the semi-finals of the trophy and qualified for the play-offs for a 28th consecutive season is viewed by the head coach as a positive.

“I’m really proud of how we turned the season around and got into a position where we could make a run for a play-off title,” said Lyons, whose team won nine of 10 games in February and March to climb into the top eight.

“In January that was far from anyone’s thoughts, so I’m really proud of how these guys stepped up.

“We just had a really good resilience this year, we had a team of guys that never dropped their heads.”

At one stage Sharks had a 8-16 (win-loss) record in the BBL and faced missing out on the post-season for the first time in over a quarter of a century. It left Lyons questioning his methods.

“It really challenged me as a coach in different ways, in terms of adjustments, finding ways to get the guys to stay motivated,” he admitted.

“I’ve not really been in this position before, so that was good for me.

“From the guys that have been here to the guys that came in, seeing how they responded and the fight they gave...we could have downed tools but they showed a lot of camaraderie and belief in me and the club.

“Sport is not an exact science. You go through stuff where you don’t know how you’re going to respond. I’ve never had this many different losing stretches in my career, especially in one season, so going through that mentally is tiring and exhausting, but to come out the other side of it and have a positive outcome is a confidence booster.”

Through it all, an adage an old coach of his instilled in Lyons rang true.

“The losses we had were all within five points, we were never beaten heavily,” he said. “My coach in high school always used to say if you lose by five or less it’s the coach’s fault, if you lose by five or more it’s the players, so I take responsibility for those close losses.

“I knew we had the talent so it’s never really a concern about that, it was me trying to find a way to get these guys an opportunity to win.”

Now he has to decide who to retain. Other than captain Rodney Glasgow Jnr who has two years of a three-year deal left, the rest of the players - Jordan Ratinho, Jalon Pipkins - are all now out of contract.

Lyons is hoping the move to a new 2,500-seater arena will prove attractive. “Everybody within the organisation hopes that the arena will be a sizeable shift in how we operate,” he said. “The existing players have seen the videos, they’ve been to the site. There’s a buzz internally about next season.

“In terms of recruitment we’ve got to keep the lights on in the building, so we have to be sensible, growing the team as we grow the club.”