SAM Oatman is young in his coaching career but wants to leave a legacy somewhere and the 35-year-old Wisconsin-native sees no reason why that can't be with the Lakeside Lightning as he enters his second season in the SBL.

Following the legacy left by Andy Stewart was always going to be difficult for whoever replaced him at the Lightning following the 2013 championship.

They remained strongly competitive in 2014 making the semi finals before losing to the Geraldton Buccaneers, but the wheels somewhat came off in 2015 with the Lightning winning just nine games and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2001, and second time ever.

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That led to Lakeside looking outside the box for a new coach and that's where Oatman came in.

Oatman had a strong history in basketball firstly as a player at East Tennessee State and then in the United Kingdom with the Coventry Crusaders.

But he returned to the United States in 2009 and spent almost seven years working at Wisconsin Resource Centre and he wasn’t sure where basketball quite fit in his future.

What he did know was that he had a strong passion to coach and all the credentials to do so. He put his hand up to coach the Lightning and was appointed ahead of the 2016 season and was quickly thrown in the deep end with little time to prepare and settle.

The result was a season where the Lightning might have missed the playoffs for the second straight season, but Daniel Alexander proved Oatman could recruit star players and then there were the young players he gave plenty of opportunities to.

Oatman backed in Corey Shervill, Daniel Grida, Hayden Bell, Matt Vinci and this season's co-captain Nic Palleschi to all play significant roles with the Lightning in 2016 with an eye to the future.

He deserves great credit for that and the benefits are already evident early in 2017, but really last season was all about learning and settling in for Oatman after a whirlwind move with his wife and young family to Perth from Wisconsin.

"Last year I didn’t quite know what to expect so I had really low expectations but this year I feel a lot more comfortable, a lot more prepared," Oatman said.

"I had to spend a lot of time last year before every game just trying to work out personnel and the style of play. That took me a while last season to get used to the refereeing, the style of play and the culture here as a whole. This year I feel a lot more comfortable across the board."

Getting used to the basketball in Australia and the SBL took some time for Oatman as well. After having already made the adjustment to the UK from high school and college in the US, he thought it might help.

But really the similarities weren’t overly close either from England to Australia so it was a steep learning curve in 2016 for the young coach.

"There's a lot of similarities and basketball is basketball, and it's obviously becoming more and more of a global sport but for me I had even been away from college basketball for a while and stopped playing in Europe in 2009," he said.

"I was basically home watching as a fan and being involved with skill development, individual and structures. There's a lot of similarities but for me it was about getting used to being around a team and a league, and basketball again.

"There is differences in Europe too versus the US and it's a number of things. The communication between the players and referees, and the coaches and referees is an adjustment, and the game here is really physical in some ways, and yet it's not in other ways.

"It's just about adjusting to different rules as well and it's about trying to remember those and I often ask my assistant coaches how many timeouts I get and when I can sub guys in and out."

However, now that he has a good handle on things, Oatman feels a lot more comfortable heading into 2017.

"I learned a lot last year, not just about the basketball culture here in WA but I learned a lot about myself as a coach and as a person. I found out there's some good in there but there's a lot of things I need to work on, and learned a lot about my team and players," Oatman said.

"This off-season I spent a lot of time with those guys to focus in on coaching and trying to help them improve, and be a lot more prepared.

"This year I feel like I'm a lot more focused on just us and our team, and what we are trying to accomplish and what I'm trying to build here. I feel way more confident and relaxed in one sense, but now we need to perform as well."

Oatman and his young family have quickly settled into the basketball and church life at Lakeside along with liking what they have experienced so far from living in Perth.

Twelve months on from when everything was a whirlwind upon arrival this time last year, they are all feeling a lot more at home.

"I've lived in a lot of different places and travelled quite a bit, which I'm very fortunate for, and generally my rule of thumb is that it takes two years to feel settled," he said.

"The first year is just a major adjustment on every level and you throw a wife and kids in there, and it makes it even more challenging. But we are definitely settling in now and we love it here. It's a really beautiful place to live and the people are great.

"We are feeling pretty good and settled heading into our second year. The kids love school and our church, and my wife has just now found a job too so things are going well."

Oatman and family also spent the summer experience what Western Australia had to offer particularly heading down south. They couldn't have been more impressed with what they found.

"It's one of the most beautiful places in the world. We got the chance to go down to the Albany and Denmark area, and I could spend days just driving along that coast line," he said.

"We went to Busselton and Bunbury as well to spend some time, and Margaret River too. I now see the appeal and understand why everyone in Perth wants to head south.

"It's just really beautiful and it's nice to be able to go outside year-round and the beaches and coastline is just amazing. You don’t get that in the mid-west of the States."

Upon arrival in Australia last year, Oatman always pictured the country's culture and lifestyle would resemble what he experienced in the UK a lot more than it actually does.

What he found was something a lot more similar to America, but the slang words used by the locals has turned out the hardest thing to try and get his head around.

"Because we had lived in England for three years I thought there was a stronger British influence in this country and I expected it to be more similar to the UK than it really is. But I got here and to me it's a lot more Americanised than I thought it would be," Oatman said.

"The look and feel, and everything on the surface almost feels like Arizona or southern California so it feels like home in a lot of ways. In that sense it has been a much easier transition. It's English speaking and I think just now I can start to understand people's accents, and I'm starting to learn some of the slang which is good.

"There are just little things in the culture that are different and there's a different way of thinking, which is OK. Different doesn’t mean wrong, it's just different and it always takes an adjustment but we love it here."

Moving forward both in terms of basketball and life, Oatman and family are open to the prospect of staying in Perth and at Lakeside beyond this year and potentially for significantly longer.

It is a long way to come to get your family settled in two years and then leave. The same goes for Oatman with the Lightning, it would be a lot of development work done for two years to then pick up and leave.

"We're definitely open to being here long-term. I love coaching basketball and I love being part of Lakeside and the ministry here, and I love being involved at the SBL level and the WABL level, and having the opportunity to be part of different people's lives," he said.

"We could definitely see ourselves being here long-term. I want to continue to coach and I feel like I'm just getting started here trying to build something, and we want to see it all the way through to the end.

"I didn’t come all the way here just to do those other things, I actually came here to win and be part of a successful program. We want to win a championship and make this club better in every area from WABL to SBL."

What the experience at Lakeside has done for Oatman is emphasise that he wants to make a career out of coaching.

Where that ends up taking him he's not sure, but what he does know is that he would like to be backed in at a club to lead them for a significant tenure and to create a lasting legacy as a coach.

"I want to coach as my career. For me it's not so much about coaching at the highest level, it's about coaching where it's the right fit for me and my family," Oatman said.

"I really have a desire to find a good situation and to be there for a number of years to make a lasting impression, and build something special and try to leave a legacy. That's very appealing to me.

"It's not so appealing to be moving year to year, and trying to chase higher levels and taking my family all over the place.

"I would definitely like to be settled for a while and down the road when my kids grow up and move on, hopefully if I still have the opportunity and have gained a lot of experience then it would be a lot of fun to chase some of those other goals and dreams."

Photo by Mick Cronin