A young Lee is a good gamble for the Lions

Over 20 years ago Sports Illustrated magazine made an entertaining, American-centric list of the Top 100 Sports Books Of All Time. At No. 9, hidden among tomes on baseball and boxing, was The Game. It’s on ice hockey, a game foreign to us summer folk, and yet all sports, whether played on a rink or a grass field, speak a common language.

- Rohit Brijnath Assistant Sports Editor

Written by legendary goalkeeper Ken Dryden, The Game is literate and insightful and includes a fascinating paragraph on his Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman.

“There are many successful ways to coach. There are autocrats and technocrats, mean SOBs and just plain folks. What makes Bowman's style work is an understanding, the understanding that must exist between a coach and his team; he knows the most important thing to a team is to win; we know he does what he does to make us win.”

As I read it last weekend I thought of Gavin Lee, who resembles an earnest, young scholar even as he has been anointed professor of the national game. How will he find more football victories, what style will he adopt through time? Perhaps even he, a boyish fellow with an evident love of learning, is unsure. But it makes for a fascinating adventure, for him and for us.

For some the joy lies in Lee being local and it’s always reassuring when a nation finds and trusts homegrown talent. Yet the beauty of coaching also lies in its generous exchange of knowledge, a cross-pollination of ideas across borders which enriches sport. Shanti Pereira’s coach is Portuguese, Australia’s rugby coach is from New Zealand, and Brazil’s football coach is Italian.