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HAY RIVER - "What do we do after this?"

That's what University of Victoria basketball teammate Kelly Dukeshire asked Quinn Groenheyde after yet another Canadian national championship in the early 1980s.

Quinn Groenheyde stands beside a picture of himself during his University of Victoria basketball days, sinking a lay-up over a defenseless Japanese National Team member, in the basement of his Hay River home. Groenheyde started high performance basketball in the territory, - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

Standing in the basement of his spacious Hay River home last Tuesday, surrounded by framed photos of his famed team, Groenheyde answered that question.

The driving force behind beginning high performance basketball in the territory, Groenheyde was part of six national championship teams with UVIC, flying around the continent playing games in front of as many as 10,000 fans against prestigious Division 1 NCAA schools and Canadian universities.

The 6'2 shooting guard played one season in Victoria, before sitting out the next with injury.

"I had my left leg shortened by an inch," he said.

It was during this year that he was introduced to coaching, something he has done ever since.

His coach – and future Canadian National Team coach Ken Shields – invited him to coach the junior varsity team.

Groenheyde, a native of Sydney, B.C., said it was his understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each position – as well as his ability to play them all – that drew Shields to ask him to coach.

He played two more seasons before being invited by Shields to be his assistant coach.

In 1986, with his university career over and he and his wife "broke," Groenheyde moved to Yellowknife, bringing his coaching experience along with him.

"Why not run a high performance team for kids who are dedicated and committed to playing at a high level and practicing hard?" he asked, when he arrived.

"I had an opportunity to play and to coach and I thought I could pass that information on."

Some of that information came from attending NBA and NCAA-hosted coaching clinics while still involved with UVIC, where he saw systems drawn up in person by legends like Pat Riley, John Wooden and Rick Pitino.

Groenheyde – the 1992 Sport North Coach of the Year – said the dozen or so players on his team practiced intensely four days a week to prepare for Arctic Winter Games and Canada Games events, touring Alberta and British Columbia for opportunities to test themselves against high-level competition.

He said if kids tried out and told him the team wasn't for them, he understood. But if they made the commitment, he made sure they saw it through.

Groenheyde said the team won its share of tournaments, while taking the city league title several years.

Throughout his time in the capital city, Groenheyde worked at the old Yellowknife Correctional Centre as a recreation programmer. He also remained active, starring in the city's basketball league and revelling in on-ice rivalries, playing with Weaver and Devore in the rec hockey league.

Eventually a new challenge offered itself, and he and his family left for Hay River in 1997. He now works as the deputy warden of the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre.

Groenheyde and his wife, Ginny, have had two daughters and a son. All their kids are athletes, with Cali, 17, playing Triple A hockey in British Columbia.

Groenheyde admitted he was a little tired from coaching when he landed in Hay River, but he still does it recreationally.

Today, he coaches his son Jeff's peewee hockey team, and also gives junior lessons at the Hay River Golf Course.

"It's not to the same extent that it was with the high performance team," he said.

Groenheyde said he enjoys watching kids develop through sport and said he is happy with the accomplishments and ongoing rewards that have come from the high performance basketball teams and players. He pointed out a number of his former players who have gone on to complete school, take up professional jobs and are now instrumental in coaching or running sport leagues in the North.

"What could make a coach prouder?" he asked.

He said there are so many life lessons to be learned in sport.

"I tell kids, 'If you can get through me, you can get through anything,'" he said with a smile.