"Winning and losing are connected. You really don't know what it's like to win unless you know how to lose. If you can't lose, it's going to make it difficult for you to win.”

Tim Brady learned this tough – and poignant – lesson over 21 years as a basketball coach in the Yukon.

For his contribution to the sport, Brady will be inducted into the Yukon Sport Hall of

Fame in the Coach/Builder category at their Annual Awards Night 7 p.m. Friday at the Whitehorse Westmark.

"I was surprised,” he said of receiving news of his induction last week. "I just didn't see it coming. I've never really thought about the Hall of Fame in any real way. It's certainly an honour and I'm thrilled for the recognition and the award.”

Brady is a familiar face at the annual ceremony: he is a four-time nominee, a two-time recipient of Yukon Coach of the Year and a recipient of Team of the Year for the Men's Canada Summer Games Basketball team in 2001.

Not to mention being a two-time nominee and one-time recipient of the 3M

Excellence in Coaching Award in 1996 and 2000.

Sport Yukon president George Arcand said the induction is deserving.

"He's done a lot of work and helped keep the program alive,” Arcand said. "Without guys like Tim and others that have done that, there would likely be no amateur sport, so it's imperative that we have people like that.”

Brady, who is current president of Basketball Yukon, has amassed an extensive resume.

During his time in Whitehorse, he has led Yukon teams to six Arctic Winter Games, two Canada Games, two Western Canada Summer Games and seven National Championships.

In addition, he was the F.H. Collins Secondary School head coach through the 1990s and continued with Porter Creek Secondary School in 2003-2004.

He has also been an influence in the board room, having been on the board of Basketball Yukon since 1994, and having developed, facilitated and coached the Pan Territorial U-17 Men's Basketball team in 2006, 2007 and 2010, as well as the women's Pan Territorial U-17 team in 2008.

But it took a lot of time to accumulate all that.

Originally from Chicago, he began coaching 25 years ago in Fort Frances, Ont., after playing college ball for Rainy River Community College in northwestern Minnesota.

"There seemed to be a natural connection for me to move that way (into coaching),” he said. "It was something that I loved doing. I think at the time I was more interested in playing than I was coaching, but nevertheless, that's how I started.”

He took that love of the game with him when he moved to Whitehorse in 1989.

That was a big move, Brady said, made easier through connections made on the hard-court, which led him to Lannie Anderson, the basketball coach for F.H. Collins Secondary School at the time.

"He turned out to be a great person in my life, a mentor and someone I sought advice from numerous times,” Brady said.

"He was taking this group of young men all over the place, they were like barnstorming. They were playing mainly in Alaska, but he'd take them down to B.C.

He was a real character, a great guy.”

Over the following three years Anderson invited Brady to help out at practices.

A clever move Anderson probably used to get himself out and Brady in, Brady said.

And it worked: in no time, Brady was at the helm, taking the team to Alaska to play a 15-20 game schedule.

That's a lot of traveling, a lot of driving, he added.

"I was a pretty new coach, and I started to barnstorm with those guys,” he said.

"This is two decades ago. A number of them are here now, and they become friends, and they're now getting involved in coaching or getting involved in basketball in the schools.”

That regeneration is a necessary part to keeping such a program alive – and helping it to grow.

Any sport is only as good as its next generation, Brady said.

"I've always tried to find a way to, where I can, reach back and bring some of the players that I've had back in the game, and I coach like that,” he said.

"I try to coach so that if a kid takes an interest, I try to cultivate it with them, whether it's trying to encourage that young person to sign up for a coaching course that we might run or to get involved with the younger age group or to coach at one of the schools or help.”

When he began coaching, Brady was "flying by the seat of my pants,” he said, but is now a certified level 3 coach and a certified level 1 and 2 conductor.

But with all the certifications, all the kilometers clocked driving around with teams and all the hours which turn to years, Brady still considers himself a student.

"I really feel like I've never stopped learning,” he said.

"I think I have a strong competitive nature, and I have a strong desire to win. That's important. But what is also important is combining that with self-discipline and a belief in yourself.

"There's a lot of people, especially in small places, and including your own thoughts sometimes, that will put a little bit of doubt in your road, and make you think that you can't do something or can't get something done. I've certainly experienced that as a coach here.”

Case in point: the early populous attitude of taking teams to major tournaments.

"I remember when we wouldn't have even thought of that, and we were discouraged to even think that

way, because of what was perceived to be our inability to compete at that level,” Brady said.

"I guess I just didn't know any better; I just said, ‘We're going to compete, we're going to do it,' and we did. I learned a tremendous amount by pursuing that. I think I may be one of the losingest coaches in Canada…but I have also experienced some of the most tremendous victories.”

Brady currently works with U-17 boys each week in a regional training centre program he started a few years back: a skill-based program dealing with the fundamentals of the game and Brady's own principles regarding competition, as a way to prepare the players for their high school teams.

A passion for the game doesn't die, he said.

"I'm one of the really fortunate guys – and I know that – in that I've had a family that's supported me and has made it easy for me. I've been around some good people that have helped me, and I've had some great players who have given me, through the experiences that I've had with them, more than I could ever give them.

That, to me, is the essence of this award, is it's really an opportunity for me to say thank you to a lot of people.”