by Often, elite athletes prevent all talk from their inner circle about results.
Instead, the repeated mantra is that it’s all about the process.
However, Chantelle Handy is a refreshing diversion from the norm.
The head coach of the Caledonia Gladiators women’s team has little doubt about the result she and her entire squad are striving for this season.
“I totally think about winning the league,” says Handy.
“You’re not a competitor if you don’t think about that. It is important for all of us to have the mindset that we want to be on top. We want to be competitive – and we want to win.”
Victory in the Women’s Basketball League (WBBL) is the ultimate goal but it is by no means insurmountable for the team who finished second in last season’s WBBL standings.
With 14 league games played this season, Gladiators are top of the WBBL, two points clear of London Lions, who have two games in hand.
The Gladiators’ run of form this season has been impressive – 13 league wins, interrupted by one defeat in early December, is testament to the team’s consistency. But with the WBBL now at the business end of the season, Handy’s players will likely need to produce the best form of their lives if they are to fulfill the English side’s ambitions.
And that starts this evening, with one of the most important games of the season at Gladiators.
They host runners-up London Lions, who have won the previous three WBBL titles, and Handy fully understands the importance of this afternoon’s 40 minutes which is essentially a double point.
Despite sitting below Gladiators in the WBBL table, London Lions are favorites to win tonight’s final but 36-year-old Handy is too far into this game to give his side the chance of to reduce the chance.
“Tonight is a big one. London is doing great things in Europe and putting British basketball on the map so it’s a great opportunity for my players to come up against that kind of talent,” she says.
“But it’s about focusing on us and making sure we’re playing our own game.
“I’m a big believer that on any given day, anything can happen. Yes, London are a great team but if we go out there and play our style I’m confident we can stick with them. A basketball game is a basketball game – you never know what’s going to happen.”
Handy played a key role in pushing the Gladiators to the position where they are now realistic contenders to win the league.
Having joined the East Kilbride-based side in the summer of 2022 as player-coach, she stepped down from playing duties at the end of last year before becoming head coach last month.
Handy (center) with another coach, Miguel Angel Ortega, and the club’s head of high performance Donnie MacDonald (Image: Caledonia Gladiators)
Her experience is vast; she is an Olympian and has played in the USA as well as several teams in Europe, which has ensured that Handy has seen it in the sport, which could come in handy in the coming weeks.
With six games remaining until the play-offs, which will decide the league winners, nerves are affecting every squad but Handy is confident his side will be as unaffected as possible by the end of the season. the team’s title challenge can be ruled out every so often.
“Right now, our confidence is high. And I try to convince the players that no matter who we are playing, we have to go into every game with the same mindset,” she says.
“Everyone is playing for playoff positions so the teams are out for blood and every single game from now until the end of the season is going to be so tough.
“We might be top of the league but we can’t rest. We’re a team that plays with intensity so if we let that mentality slip, we let our whole identity slip.”
There is no doubt that the mark the Gladiators have achieved on the women’s game in the year and a half since they turned professional is already impressive but a league win would put the side into a whole other stratosphere.
Handy refuses to get too excited about the ramifications of a league title but still, with the WBBL trophy a long way off, she is well aware of the impact a league title would have on the women’s game in this country.
“It would be massive for us to win the WBBL,” she says.
“Already this season we are the first Scottish team to set foot in Europe and that was a huge milestone and it would be huge for Scotland if we could win the league as well.
“It would be a big step – this is only our second year as a pro team so we’re trying to take it slow and develop our players and that will take time.
“We have long-term goals but at the moment, it’s about taking it one game at a time and seeing what we can do in the coming weeks.”
