ON CAMPUS: Passion for basketball led grad to career
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While growing up in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, a portside shire town on the Bay of Fundy, Ryan Dickison tried his hand at a mixture of sports. He was seven years old when he gravitated toward the court. From the moment he picked up a basketball, he had an aptitude and appetite for the game.
“At that age, my passion for the sport took off,” said Dickison. “It was also the best of both worlds. I could play a game I loved and be with my friends, who were also my teammates.”
After high school, Dickison went to Saint Mary’s University and graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. In 2011, he decided to blend his enthusiasm for basketball with journalism and left the East Coast to pursue a post-graduate Sports Journalism certificate at Loyalist (a program that was offered at the time). At the end of the academic year, he completed a placement with Canada Basketball where he wrote profiles and feature stories for the national organization’s website.
“Basketball is my passion,” he said. “It’s an area I’ve always wanted to have a career in — be it on or off the court.”
Dickison became an assistant coach for the Loyalist Lancers men’s basketball varsity team in 2012, a position which opened the door to future coaching experiences.
“Being an assistant coach at Loyalist was amazing,” he said. “It was basically the first time that opportunity presented itself and, due to that experience, I went on to become an Assistant U17 and U15 Boys’ Basketball Coach with Basketball Nova Scotia and an Assistant Coach at Dalhousie University.”
Coaching gave Dickison the opportunity to give back to a sport to which he has dedicated much of his life and the chance to inspire the next generation of athletes.
In 2012, Dickison continued his studies at Loyalist in the post-graduate Public Relations certificate program and in 2013 he became a placement student with Basketball Nova Scotia in the role of public relations manager. The following year, he was hired as the organization’s operations manager, a position he holds to this day.
From managing the organization’s website and social media channels, to organizing events and sports programming across the province, no two days are the same for Dickison.
“We are Basketball Nova Scotia,” he said. “Coming from a small town, I know what it’s like to travel various lengths and distances to be provided with the opportunities for which others in central areas may have more access. That’s why we do our best to reach out to those small communities and provide them with grassroots initiatives and programming such as high performance programs, identification camps and clinics. We want everyone to be engaged from tip to tip, whether that be Yarmouth, Shelburne, Lockeport, Digby, Antigonish, New Glasgow and Cape Breton Island. We try to cover it all.”
It’s often said the inherent values of a sport travel beyond the techniques of the game. There’s no shortage of life lessons to be had.
“Sport, in general, is important,” he said. “Not just basketball. I believe that sport unites us. It provides life lessons that we remember forever.”