Dillyn Morin

A Reason to Keep Playing

A third-year athlete measures success by how the game feels, as well as where it takes him.

Dillyn Morin knew he wanted to take basketball seriously after his first high school game in Grade 10.

He played terribly.

That’s the detail that makes the memory useful. Nothing about the performance told him he should continue. He wanted to continue anyway.

There’s a kind of conviction that becomes clearer after a difficult game. When the result gives you no reason to celebrate, you find out whether you still want to return to the gym.

Dillyn did. Grade 10 also produced a very different memory: a 40-point game while playing on the senior team. The player who had stumbled through that first appearance discovered what he could do when things came together.

It is tempting to make the 40-point game the beginning of the story. The rough debut may explain more. Dillyn recognized a desire to compete seriously before the game supplied flattering evidence. He wanted to keep playing when he was disappointed with himself. The later performance gave him something to celebrate, but the earlier one had already given him a decision to make.

That is a useful pair of memories to carry into any new season. There will be days when the game feels available and days when it feels just out of reach. He has already experienced both without losing the reason to return.

Now entering his third year of eligibility with St. Mary’s, he brings both experiences into another season. The rough beginning and the scoring breakthrough belong to the same story. One supplied a reason to work; the other showed what that work could make possible.

His favourite player is Kyrie Irving, an understandable choice for someone drawn to basketball’s possibilities. But Dillyn’s own definition of success is less about a spectacular performance than a feeling he wants to sustain.

“When I imagine success, I just see myself being happy with where I am at.”

It is an unusually uncluttered answer in a sport where goals can turn into an escalating list. Dillyn leaves room for satisfaction in the life he is actually playing through. His favourite player, Kyrie Irving, gives him someone to admire; his own definition of success gives him something more personal to recognize.

Away from the court, he enjoys taking his dog for walks. His pregame routine usually doesn’t include music. If it did, “cannes” by Pz would be the choice.

He doesn’t need to make every part of the game elaborate. Basketball mattered enough to pursue after a bad debut, and enough to keep pursuing through the years that followed.

This season offers another chance to play well, keep developing, and enjoy the place the game has brought him.