About 40 friends, family members, former players and their parents gathered at Littlejohn Park Saturday, Sept. 24, to send youth basketball coach Sherman Lee into retirement.

The event was emotional for Lee, who has coached numerous youth basketball players and has conducted his well-regarded Defend the Rim clinics in Alameda for almost ten years, (“Basketball Coach Ends Long Career in Alameda,” Sept. 11; https://alamedasun.com/news/basketball-coach-ends-long-career-alameda).

“Seeing the parents talk about how much I helped the kids and watching some of them cry and the kids standing up telling me how much I’ve done for the program made the event memorable,” said Lee.

Many of Lee’s former players attended the event. They took part in his Defend the Rim clinics as young kids and continued in organized team basketball.

“It was awesome seeing all my players come back and getting to see how they advanced to high school and some of them in college,” said Lee.

Lee’s parents attended the event, so too did his brother, who traveled from San Diego. An unfamiliar guest also attended the event.

“Even the mailman stopped by to talk about how I’d help the kids and the neighborhood,” said Lee. “I didn’t even know he knew about it.”

Lee has now moved to Sacramento. Though he is mostly sure he will stop coaching, he did leave the door open for the possibility to continue coaching.

“It would have to be a top-notch team that wanted an old school coach,” said Lee.

Lee, an Encinal High School Class of 1981 graduate, has been coaching basketball in some form for more than 40 years. He began his coaching career after after graduating high school. He joined the EHS basketball team coaching staff as an assistant coach. In recent years Lee has conducted dozens of basketball clinics for Alameda youth through his Defend the Rim clinics. The clinic started in 2005 in Southern California, and he brought it to Alameda in 2013.