Former Riptide Coach Hopeful For Team’s Return

The former head coach of the Saint John Riptide is hopeful the basketball team will return to the court next season.

Last week, the National Basketball League of Canada granted the team a one-year break to work on its finances.

Nelson Terroba, who coached the Riptide for the past two seasons, said there are a lot of ways to look at the announcement.

“When we’re a coach, a loss can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so people can view the sabbatical as a loss of sorts,” said Terroba in a phone interview.

But it is good Saint John has had the chance to have basketball for so long and be one of the league’s founding teams, Terroba added.

“Just like a good team, you have to look at what causes those loses, what can we do differently in the future, how do we want to redirect ourselves so that we can move forward in a positive direction,” he said.

Terroba said he believes there is traction, support and alignment in the community to create a new group which forms a stronger team.

But, he said, the intense commitment and level of involvement have to happen from community leaders so the team would be successful.

“I think there’s people there, there’s corporations there that could step in … somehow, the leadership has to get aligned and the movement has to be put on the same page,” Terroba said.

The National Basketball League of Canada has released the following statement concerning @cbhighlanders and the @sjriptide.#NBLC9https://t.co/z5afvY6IXd

— NBL Canada (@NBLCanada) August 30, 2019

Terroba said he has a lot of fond memories of his time in Saint John from both a community and basketball perspective.

“Our Battle of 506 games were great just to have a big crowd there supporting us,” he said. “Even in our last game, the new leadership and Moosehead were able to open up the arena to anybody who wanted to come and support our team free of charge.”

Terroba said their main priority now is finding new homes for all of the Riptide players — some of whom have already signed with other teams.

“Frank Bartley is in Spain, Bryce Washington I believe is signing a contract in Israel, Randy Phillips is in Switzerland, and then the rest of our guys are close to and working towards some signings both in the NBL and beyond,” he said.

As for Terroba’s future, he said he is open to any opportunities which may come forward and did not rule out a return to the team in the future.