A star family | The Press

Frankie Isidore is a father of six, a driver for Amazon and a volunteer coach for three Basketball teams… A month ago, he launched the season for 8- and 9-year-old players in the hope of teaching them to become better humans.

In secondary four, during his French test, Frankie Isidore had to defend a choice: did he want to have just one child or start a large family? An only child himself, he had argued in favor of siblings. But hey, he didn’t imagine having six children aged 1 to 17, two decades later…

The entire clan arrives at the Saint-Nom-de-Marie boarding school, in Montreal, on this Saturday morning of training. Dominique Greffard, assistant coach of Sun Youth AAA novices, tells me that he admires this family which “always travels with eight people!” »…

Fatima, Frankie’s wife, confirms to me that they are close-knit and rarely at home: “It’s a passion for me to see my husband coach! Its role of coach and his role as dad is what he does best. Do you know how he starts talking to them about basketball as soon as they’re in my belly? », she asks me, pointing to her daughter Flora (4 years old), dribbling with impressive dexterity, in the middle of the field.

The phrase is cliché, but it accurately summarizes the facts: basketball is a way of life for Frankie Isidore. “As soon as I have a problem, I go on the court and that’s it…Basketball is the sport that understands me. »

It is also the one who facilitated his integration. Frankie arrived from Haiti at the age of 12 when the school year had already started. It was while picking up a ball during recess that he saw his social circle begin to form. He has never stopped playing (he says today he plays “old people’s basketball”) and he has been training children for 15 years now with the hope of passing on to them not only his knowledge, but also his immense passion.

Whether with Sun Youth, Louisbourg elementary school or the Up Next summer team, the forty-year-old offers eight hours of training per week, in addition to supervising 32 games and more than four tournaments per season. That’s actually hours of volunteering…

Fortunately, it’s a family project. The children thrive on basketball and Fatima manages the communications of each group of players, in addition to washing everyone’s uniform after training… (I can’t imagine, however, that the Isidore home lacks laundry to do, at least one week course!)

“What we like is giving back,” Fatima tells me.

And to give, they give.

Nachly Remarais has two sons on the Sun Youth team and she says the Isidores taught them to believe in themselves. She tells me that her oldest was nervous before an athletics competition (nervous to the point of wanting to cancel his participation). Frankie, Fatima and their children traveled to cheer him on from the stands after having previously convinced him of his talent. That day he won a medal.

Alex Thoby tells me that all parents are looking for something impossible for their children: adults who will give them as much as they know how. He surprisingly found that in Frankie Isidore. “It is there to teach them the balance that sport can offer in life. My son doesn’t know the idea that one guy can be better than the rest… The competition will come soon enough. Here he is having fun. »

Here, there is no question of leaving anyone on the benches. “Sun Youth’s mission is to give children an opportunity to grow through sport,” explains Frankie. For now, they’re having fun, but if they want to go further in the sport, they’ll have to go to college. »

Basketball as a launching pad towards a certain future.

Last year, the team won top honors after a season where they were never defeated! Several children knocked on the door of Frankie and Sun Youth this fall. “I have young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and others whose parents are doctors, but they all have the same passion,” says the coach.

The same passion, yes, but not the same background. The mother of Zachary (9 years old) emphasizes how patient Frankie Isidore and Dominique Greffard are in teaching her son who did not speak French at all, upon his recent arrival from Taiwan. And the coaches work hard to help him express himself through sport even though he cannot do it perfectly with words.

Besides, I have to tell you how beautiful it is to see children playing with smiles on their faces. They encourage each other with frank camaraderie, tease each other, surpass each other. I also like the way the one they call “coach Frankie” started training by saying to them: “Big week or what? » Hands were immediately raised, all the players wanting to talk about their latest dictation…

These children are united (in addition to being more agile than I will ever be, despite being 8 years old).

“What Frankie and Fatima give us is an extension of our family,” says Wendy Simpson. Through sport, I look for places where my son can learn beautiful values ​​because the boys of today are the men of tomorrow. Here, they support each other in success and failure. They discover that a team is not about you…”

I have no difficulty believing that the Isidore family can indeed teach anyone about strength in numbers.