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Moresports Personality Profiles

Antonina: East Central's 2008 YELL Outstanding Volunteer
By Kimberly Daum

Antonina Ferguson

No one has to worry about Antonina Ferguson or her future. She's got lots to look forward to.

The 17-year-old beauty and award-winning YELL volunteer with the form and poise of a dancer, the heart and soul of a romantic, and the drive and sparkle of a sports car will be graduating from Vancouver Technical Secondary soon. And, she has a birthday coming this summer; before you can say Congratulations and Happy Birthday she'll be an adult. This fall she'll attend Simon Fraser University where she'll educate to become a teacher. And, sometime after completing her first year, Antonina will begin planning her wedding to the man she met when she was still a girl.

Michael Both, her true love, is the son of family friends. They've known each other for years, each family having a cottage at Harrison Hot Springs where the couple met and where the two families shared summer weekends together. Harrison is also where Antonina worked at a kids club, found the inspiration to teach, and confirmed that she wants an occupation in which she can influence and support kids.

Antonina has more than one Michael in her life; in Vancouver she met another Michael whose suggestion took her in an unexpected direction.

Michael Henderson is MoreSports East Central Hub Coordinator as well as its YELL Program Coordinator. Antonina met him at the leadership program at VanTech, and he offered her a spot in the YELL basketball certification program.

Henderson says, "Antonina was a diamond in the rough that came across as a self-directed and mature student that could take a leadership role and run with it."

Antonina had no prior basketball experience but trained in the program and became a MoreSports coach.

"I used to be a dancer (tap, jazz and ballet for 10 years) and didn't like sports at all," she says, "I was totally terrible at basketball; I used to run away from the ball because I was terrified of it; now I can actually play it."

Antonina thought the YELL certification would be good for her, and would show university faculty members and future employers that she works well with kids. That is one of her abilities, but she was also aware that she had some weaknesses.

Performing in front of others had never been an issue for Antonina because of her dancing "but speaking I'd always had a problem, learning how to speak up and be heard, I'd need that to be a teacher."

As the old saw goes, "Anything worth having takes effort," so coaching a team was no different for Antonina.

"At the beginning, when I started teaching, the kids treated me with no respect. I didn't think I'd get them to take me seriously. I was scared to do it and thought I'd made a big mistake," she admits.

Big problem. How did she solve it? She didn't quit and she went with her natural instincts.

"I treated them with respect, and I let them give me ideas about what games they wanted to play," Antonina says. She worked with a simple slogan: "I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to teach you basketball."

"Then older kids started telling me about the boy they had a crush on and started treating me like I was an older friend. It made me feel that my job was meaningful and that going there every week meant something to them and something to me. I felt like I left my childhood, waiting to get advice from someone else to where now I had something to offer and kids were asking for my advice."

And, Antonina has a firm family foundation from which she produces that advice. She uses a word not often heard these days: understanding. She describes mother Rosa and father Clifford, twin brother Fillippo, and her fiancé, as having that quality. And, now we know where she gets that quality herself.

"We are a really close family," she says, "We (she and her brother) haven't grown away from our parents. When I tell my mother something she can compare her problems with me, and we can help each other, and she doesn't judge me."

"Dad is a very hard worker," she continues, "He just helps me deal with a problem. He says, ‘If this is what you want this is what we'll let you have.' He worked every Saturday for extra money just so he could buy me a BBQ for my graduation."

"The great thing about me and my brother, when there is something that needs to be told he's always the first one I tell. He's just my best friend and we are so close."

Her grandparents, on her mom's side, were married for 53 years, and both twins were named for them. Rosa, who volunteered at Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House's preschool, helps Antonina's Gramma because her Grampa died last year. Clifford has a recycling plant, and Filippo aspires to be a chef (look out Rob Fennie). After working a summer job he'll be entering Vancouver Community College's culinary program. Her fiancé Michael "is patient, really easy to talk to, and when I really knew we were in love was when we were sitting together and saying nothing and it wasn't awkward."

Antonina puts a high priority on building healthy relationships. She believes that being part of a team, like being part of a family, builds confidence.

"Because a lot of the kids I'm coaching have never picked up a basketball in their life, just getting them to know that they are a team, being a part of something and that they can go up against another team helps confidence," she says.

Girls, find it a "big deal," she says, "Especially when the boys pass to them. As long as they are a part of it, it's a big deal for them."

Antonina says the bonding kids do on the court makes a social difference for them off the court as well.

"Some of these kids are not in the same class (at school) together, so now they have new friends in their school and they get confidence about talking to them," she says. "When you coach you can see the kids who are "cool" and those who are not. But after (being in the MoreSports program) Grade 6ers can talk to the Grade 7s when they're having lunch. So it builds their confidence in school not just when they're playing basketball."

MoreSports literally levels the playing field between such cliques and it keeps kids busy in a productive and positive way.

"MoreSports keeps kids out of trouble and gives them something worthwhile to do instead of them getting into trouble spray-painting or egging houses or something like that."

"I'm really glad that the kids let me into their lives and glad that Michael (Henderson) gave me a great opportunity to experience this and to let me stick out from the crowd," she says. "It got me used to actually teaching kids."

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