It’s hardly surprising that, just a week on from her last-ever competitive game of basketball, Erin McGarrachan is still struggling to get her head around the prospect of retirement.
Over the past decade-and-a-half, McGarrachan has dedicated her life to basketball, becoming Scotland’s most successful-ever female basketball player and playing a significant role in transforming women’s basketball in this country. At the age of 33, however, McGarrachan has decided now’s the time to call it a day at the highest level.
Her journey has taken her from her hometown of Cumbernauld across the Atlantic and back and despite encountering a few obstacles, McGarrachan is in little doubt that the highs far outnumber the lows in a career that has lasted considerably longer than she anticipated.
McGarrachan struts into retirement off the back of not only one of her most successful seasons personally, but also a history-making season for the club with which she’s spent the past three seasons, Caledonia Gladiators.
In winning the women’s side’s first-ever silverware in the shape of the Trophy Finals title in January, McGarrachan and her teammates wrote themselves into the history books and this result, as well as a fourth place Championship finish and a run to the Playoffs semi-finals, ensure McGarrachan is departing on a high which has, she admits, made walking away marginally easier
“Being retired still feels surreal and it's not fully sunk in yet,” Gladiators’ captain says.
“The reality hit me when we finished our final game of the season last Saturday - I don't usually get emotional but when the final whistle went, I really did tear up because the realisation hit me that my final game was over.
“I couldn't have asked for a better season to finish on, though, and I feel like I got everything out of this last season that I could ever have dreamed of.
“I have had moments of wondering if retiring was the right thing, like when I've had really good practices or when I was really enjoying the moment with my teammates, but I've been reminded on more than one occasion when my whole body's aching that it probably is time to step away.”
As a teenager, McGarrachan was singled-out as a promising talent and a basketball scholarship at the University of Texas El Paso duly followed. It was here, though, that she encountered the first significant challenge of her career.
“When I went to college in the States, I thought it was going to be great but at the end of my first year, the coach sat me down and told me I was a great person and a great student, but I wasn't going to be a basketball player in her programme,” McGarrachan recalls.
“I was young and had all these hopes and dreams so to have someone telling you you're never going to make it was really tough.
“But I had a lot of good people around me who told me that even though she didn't think I was going to make it, that didn't mean I couldn't go elsewhere and be successful.”
Go somewhere else was exactly what McGarrachan did, transferring to Houston Baptist University where she forged a stellar collegiate career, with a particular highlight being her side’s run to the Conference Final.
By this point, McGarrachan had caught the eye of the GB selectors and, despite a year on the sidelines due to a serious foot injury, she was well on her way to forging a successful professional career.
Stints with English side, Leicester Riders, and BK Duchess in Austria followed but, as the Covid pandemic took over the globe in 2020, McGarrachan effectively retired, choosing to pursue a career in accountancy.
Until, that is, a call came from offices of the newly formed Scottish professional team, Caledonia Gladiators.
McGarrachan’s decision to return to top-level basketball wasn’t immediate, but it ultimately became what she calls a “no-brainer”.
“It was Lisa Palombo (Gladiators’ Head of WBBL) who said to me about this professional club being started up, and asked, was I going to let that opportunity pass me by?,” McGarrachan says.
“Coming back to basketball wasn’t an easy decision, though, because I was already old to be starting my accountancy career so it wasn't as simple as just walking away from a regular job to go back and play basketball, which has a shelf life.
“But, ultimately, I realised what an opportunity it was to join Gladiators and I’m so glad I did go back to basketball.”
McGarrachan is too modest to shout about the influence she’s had on basketball, especially the women’s game, but her impact is undeniable.
Caledonia Gladiators as a club, and the women’s team specifically, has become a significant force within British basketball, with McGarrachan a major player in the transformation of the sport over the past decade. And she admits reflecting on the journey the sport has taken, and her part in it, is quite breath-taking.
“When I played in England, the difference between how the men’s and the women’s teams were treated was very prevalent whereas when I look at what we've got here in Scotland, there's absolutely no difference between how the men and women are treated, and that's amazing,” she says.
“In the past three years at Gladiators, the women's fan base has grown tenfold, and the greatest thing is there's a lot of young kids coming to see our games.
“I never set out to be a role model, I just really enjoyed playing basketball, but to have turned into one is incredible.
“It gives you such a massive boost knowing that you're not just running up and down a court after a ball, there is a wider, more meaningful purpose.”
With basketball having been both a constant and a dominant presence in McGarrachan’s life for so many years, she has little doubt as to the hole retirement will leave. And having been surrounded by teammates all her career, she admits the prospect of being without them is somewhat daunting.
“There's no question I'm going to miss the sport massively,” she says.
“I think I'll always be an active person, but you just don't get that same high from anything else that you get in competition.
“And there's the interaction with your teammates and with the fans. You just can't replace that.
“You have a special connection to your teammates because you have to work with them to make the magic happen. They always have your back, you go through the highs and lows together, and you're always there for each other, so I’ll miss having that.”
Having already joined the accountancy department at the business of the club’s owners, the Timoneys, McGarrachan’s future remains at Caledonia Gladiators and although she’s ruling out a move into the coaching sphere for now, she’s more than aware that she’d be a fool to predict too far into the future.
“I have the best of all worlds by being able to stay involved in basketball and also continue my accountancy career,” she says.
“Coaching has never really appealed to me, although who knows how I'll feel in the future.
“Basketball will always be in my life, whether that's as a fan, a coach, a mentor or anything else, but it does have a way of pulling me back in.”
