Often elite athletes prohibit any discussion of results in their immediate circle.
Instead, the mantra, repeated ad nauseam, is that it’s all about the process.
But Chantelle Handy is a refreshing diversion from the norm.
The head coach of the Caledonian Gladiators women’s team has little doubt about the result he and his entire team are striving for this season.
“I’m definitely looking to win the league,” says Handy.
“If you don’t think about it, you’re not a competitor. It is important for all of us to have the mindset that we want to be at the top. “We want to be competitive and we want to win.”
Victory in the Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) is a big target, but it’s certainly not out of reach for the team that finished second in the WBBL standings last season.
With 14 league games played this season, the Gladiators sit top of the WBBL, two points ahead of the London Lions who have two games in hand.
The Gladiators’ form this season was remarkable; 13 league victories, interrupted by just a single defeat at the start of December, are testament to the side’s consistency. But with the WBBL now reaching the business end of the season, Handy’s players will likely have to be in the best form of their lives if they are to realize the Englishwoman’s ambitions for herself.
And tonight begins with one of the Gladiators’ most important matches of the season.
They host second-placed London Lions, who have won the last three WBBL titles, and Handy is fully aware that tonight’s 40 minutes is essentially a double-point score.
Despite sitting below the Gladiators in the WBBL standings, the London Lions are many favorites to win tonight’s clash but Handy, 36, has been in the game too long to rule out his side’s chances of overturning the odds.
“It’s a big deal tonight. London are doing great things in Europe and putting British basketball on the map, this is a great opportunity for my players to compete against that kind of talent,” he says.
“But it’s about focusing on us and making sure we play our game.
“I believe anything can happen on any given day. Yes, London are a very quality team, but if we go out there and play our way, I’m sure we can stick with them. A basketball game is a basketball game; “You don’t know what will happen.”
Handy played a pivotal role in getting the Gladiators to the position they are in now, where they are talked about as realistic contenders to win the league.
He joined the East Kilbride-based team as a player-coach in the summer of 2022 and left his playing duties at the end of last year before being appointed head coach last month.
Handy (center) with fellow coach Miguel Angel Ortega and the club’s head of high performance Donnie MacDonald (Image: Caledonian Gladiators)
His experience is vast; He is an Olympian and has played for various teams in Europe as well as the United States, which has allowed Handy to see everything in the sport; This may come in handy in the coming weeks.
With six games remaining before the play-offs, which will decide the league winner, nerves are starting to tense in all teams, but Handy is confident that his team will remain as unaffected as possible by end-of-season concerns. We can often see a team’s championship bid derailed.
“We have high confidence right now. I’m trying to explain to the players that no matter who we play, we need to go into every match with the same mentality,” he says.
“Everyone is playing for play-off positions, so the teams are hungry for blood and every game from now until the end of the season will be very tough.
“We may be leading the league, but we cannot relax. We are a team that plays with high intensity, so if we allow that mentality to slip, we allow our entire identity to slip.”
There is no doubt that the impact the Gladiators have had on women’s football in the last year and a half since they turned professional has already been remarkable, but a league win would take the team into a whole different stratosphere.
Handy refuses to get overly excited about the repercussions of a league title just yet, but with the WBBL cup just around the corner, she is aware of the impact a league title would have on women’s football in this country.
“Winning the WBBL would be a huge thing for us,” he says.
“We have already become the first Scottish team to set foot in Europe this season, which was a huge milestone and if we won the league it would be a huge achievement for Scotland too.
“That would be a big step; this is only our second year as a professional team, so we are trying to progress little by little and develop our players and that will take time.
“We have long-term goals, but for now the important thing is to take each game one by one and see what we can do in the next few weeks.”