{"id":913031,"date":"2026-10-02T04:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913031\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T04:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:18:13","slug":"canberras-basketball-community-mourns-the-loss-of-one-its-greatest-servants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913031\/","title":{"rendered":"Canberra\u2019s basketball community mourns the loss of one its greatest servants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Brian (front and centre) with other members of the Spartans Basketball Club. Photo: Spartans Basketball Club.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine anybody devoting close to 40 years of their life to community sport as a volunteer coach, mentor, and committee member.<\/p>\n

Brian Demmery did.<\/p>\n

Over 37 years in Canberra, Brian spent countless hours building clubs, delivering programs and contributing across multiple clubs, as well as junior and senior representative teams.<\/p>\n

One of Canberra\u2019s largest junior clubs, the Southern Valley Spartans, benefited enormously from Brian\u2019s passion for the sport.<\/p>\n

He was a driver behind the rebrand from Tuggeranong Southern Cross to the Spartans in 2025, including the black and pink uniforms.<\/p>\n

Culture and community were central to Brian\u2019s basketball philosophy.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Spartans honoured Brian as the inaugural life member in recognition of his remarkable service.<\/p>\n

In a tribute post on their website following his passing this week, the Spartans said, \u201cYour vision became our identity; your legacy will live on in Spartans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"life<\/p>\n

Brian Demmery was recently awarded Life Membership of the Spartan Basketball Club. Photo: Spartan Basketball Club FB.<\/p>\n

There were also tributes from ACT Basketball and Marist College, where Brian coached the senior team from 1994 to 1997.<\/p>\n

There were also plenty of messages on social media from people he had contact with over the past 37 years in basketball at all levels in the ACT.<\/p>\n

Some posted memories of Brian\u2019s unique style as he paced the court with a swagger, smile and growl, all wrapped into one.<\/p>\n

Dr Karen Demmery stood by her husband through the highs and lows. She describes Brian as \u201ca great husband, an amazing father, a brother, a mate, a proud Wiradjuri man\u201d. And she was there by his side to the very end.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Dr Karen Demmery with Brian. Photo: Karen Demmery FB.<\/p>\n

Brian struggled with numerous health issues over the years, including kidney failure, heart attack, Parkinson\u2019s, a stroke and infections. He had years of dialysis, a triple bypass and a kidney transplant.<\/p>\n

As Karen says of Brian: \u201cStrong. Proud. Loyal. Funny. Stubborn as hell. Quiet and loud. He knew who he was, he knew what mattered to him, and he loved his family fiercely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Demmery passed away peacefully at the age of 60, surrounded by his family.<\/p>\n

He was a force of nature who will be missed by many in the Canberra community whom he positively influenced.<\/p>\n

Make us preferred on Google<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian (front and centre) with other members of the Spartans Basketball Club. Photo: Spartans Basketball Club. It\u2019s hard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-913031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}