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Moresports Personality Profiles

Courting Leadership
By Kimberly Daum

Chris Manzikala

Chris Manzikala plays on MoreSports East Fraserview fastbreak basketball and soccer teams, and volunteer coaches younger MoreSports athletes. This Grade 7 student is also team captain of the MoreSports U13 Fastbreak Basketball Provincial Team that played in the finals at Argyle High School April 11th through 13th. The team didn't take the championship though it put out a solid performance.

Coach David Knight, who recruited Chris into MoreSports programs, says: "Chris had a lot of fans cheering for him" and he was invited to a basketball camp the weekend after the finals because the organizers were "amazed with his strength and heart."

"Chris has been a part of our MoreSports provincial basketball team for the past two years, and he recently won ‘Most Valuable Player' at the Provincial Basketball Burnaby South Classic tournament," his coach continues. "He has such great talent and is really interested in learning how to be the best player he can be."

It's clear to anyone who has ever watched him play that Chris has always had the talent, but he didn't always know how to make the best use of it or his other attributes.

"Before joining MoreSports I thought it was all about winning, not about any of the fun, or learning, or accomplishing anything," he says. "My own goal was to win, but I've learned it's not always about winning. It's the bettering yourself part that I've learnt."

And this isn't the superficial post-game locker-room-talk you hear in interviews with professional athletes on daily sportscasts. Chris' thinking process about sports is deeper than that. On the court, he finds life lessons that surpass his years.

"Before I joined the team I didn't really care about things other than myself because I didn't think other people cared about me," he says. "But after about a month on the team I noticed that Dave cared about me, and my teammates cared about me, and it changed me somehow."

When Chris joined MoreSports he was having some family issues. "When I'm on the court I don't really think about those things," he says. "I tend to smile more on the court than I do other places."

"(MoreSports) will teach you more about yourself than you think you know. It's the coaches; they sort of made us -- the team -- like a family," Chris says. "I saw what each teammate could and couldn't do, and it related to my family and it really helped."

It's clear that the MoreSports experience has encouraged him and that didn't occur when he played on school and league teams.

"On the other teams I've been on the coaches if you do something wrong tell you that you did that wrong, but in MoreSports they tell you what you did wrong, but they also tell you what you did right."

He credits team camaraderie, and the coaches' constructive criticism as well as the supportive way in which it is delivered as characterizing the program. What defines MoreSports is also what makes it so beneficial, stabilizing, and life-changing for it participants.

"On other teams each player thinks he is good, but on MoreSports we think we're good." He says players from other teams might not detect exactly what makes the difference, but they sure seem to notice there is one.

"I think that players on school teams look up to (MoreSports players) when we're on their teams at school," Chris says. "I've heard guys on the school team say that they want to be as a good as the MoreSports teams."

And they could be according to Chris. "There should be way more (MoreSports) attitude on teams. It's like if we lose a game everyone's okay with it and everyone is a good sport with MoreSports. On other teams I was on everyone would get mad about it and blame each other for losing." Chris thinks the latter approach actually leads to more losses rather than producing more wins.

Before Chris' team heads onto the court they give a cheer of either "teamwork" or "play hard." Occasionally, old mindsets can resurface since a lot can happen once a game gets going.

"If we're winning the team's confidence is boosted up, and if we're losing by two points we can start losing confidence, and if we're losing by 10 points we can start to feel it's hopeless," he says. "But I tell them ‘What makes you think they are better than us? They are only as good as we're letting them be."

When he looks back Chris sees how much he's developed. He knows he's matured.

"I thought I was good before I joined MoreSports, but now it shows how (MoreSports) works because I've gotten better from it. It's good because our coaches push you to your limits to show how good you are individually and together. When I thought I was good I didn't get pushed hard enough, but when I joined the MoreSports provincial team I started seeing that I got better."

This is Chris' last year as a MoreSports player since the program serves kids until they complete Grade 7. But, MoreSports isn't losing Chris for long because he'll be taking the National Basketball Coaching Certification training through the YELL program. Soon he'll be coaching MoreSports kids as an employee rather than a volunteer, and Coach David is looking forward to welcoming him as a full-fledged colleague.

"I guess I'm more confident and now I don't really mind losing any more because I learn from all of the games, so even though I lose I still win," Chris says.

Besides that lesson what motto will Chris take with him into the next stage of his basketball career?

"You use what you know and combine that with what you're learning and it turns out really good."

Those aren't just words to play by; they're also words to live by.

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