Blacktop Tales | Season 3 | Episode 7 | Georgia Gayle | All Saints Sports Centre
For years, most hoopers in the UK were first-generation lovers of the game. We had to school our parents on the nuances – from explaining why height was an advantage rather than a necessity, to convincing them that having a pair of kicks meant only for the court was essential. But in recent decades a different story has begun to unfold. Second-generation players and fans grew up with parents who’d already lived it, or at least loved it enough to pass that spark straight to the next wave.
Georgia can’t remember her first moment with basketball. She was born into it. Her dad, Garnet Gayle, was playing when she was little; her mum had played too, even suiting up while pregnant with Georgia’s older brother. “From day dot I was on the side of the court,” she says. “My whole family were either playing or coaching. I’m used to the sound of the ball bouncing.”
Her parents met through the game — a classic “Love & Basketball” story. Her dad arrived in Sheffield for university and eventually became one of the best players in Britain despite starting late. Her mum coached. Her nan coached. Her aunty coached. Basketball wasn’t just a sport: it was the language the family spoke.
So when Georgia picked up a ball at eight years old, it wasn’t a surprise. She joined hooping sessions and was thrown straight into under-13s while still tiny in an oversized kit. “The shorts had to be tied all the way round my waist,” she laughs. “I still remember my first game — we were away at Stockport. I played the last few seconds, got floored by an opponent, then cried on the court!” She was five years younger than everyone else, but she didn’t walk away.
Being surrounded by basketball sounds idyllic, but for Georgia, it was, at times, overwhelming. Breakfast conversations, car-ride debates, training sessions, clipboard talk — basketball, basketball, basketball. And as a kid with options, she wasn’t convinced this was the life she wanted.
“I had horses outside of basketball,” she says. “But we didn’t have the money to make it in horse riding. I really struggled with the fact that every day everything was basketball. I became rebellious. A bit of a diva. I caused problems. I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
By her early teens she was already talented, but talent didn’t immediately translate to joy. When she made the England U16 team at thirteen, playing alongside athletes three years older — “a huge gap at that age” — she realised just how far she still had to go. For the first time in her life she wasn’t the big fish. “I went from being the one at home, to no one knowing who I was. It knocked me.”
Basketball stopped feeling like a choice and more like an expectation. It wasn’t until she hit sixteen — switching focus from horses to hoops — that everything began to shift. “I realised I’m actually good at this. Not to be big-headed, but I need to do something with this.”
This new drive lead her overseas to play in The States. Two years at Northwest Florida State, one year at UCF, and then — like so many athletes — her college journey was derailed by Covid. She returned home with eligibility left but no desire to continue in an environment that had mentally drained her.
“So I came home. There was no team, I didn’t think I was going to play. But I missed it so much. I can’t sit at home and do nothing.”
So she went to Spain for a season, came back, and has been in Sheffield ever since.
"I went from being the one at home, to no one knowing who I was. It knocked me."
Playing for the Hatters isn’t a nostalgia trip for Georgia — it’s an act of stewardship. Her grandmother didn’t just coach or build teams; she shaped British basketball itself.
“She coached national teams, she played, she was on the FIBA board at one point,” Georgia says. “She’s got an OBE from the Queen for services to basketball. She’s one of the most winning coaches in history. We used to win everything. In twenty years, I think there were only three years we didn’t win.”
That history isn’t an abstract pressure. It’s the building she grew up in. The banners she trained under. The juniors who now look up to her the way generations once looked up to Betty.
“I think that’s why it’s so hard for me to leave,” she admits. “I feel like I’m building something here. The kids look up to me. It’s a huge pull.”
Georgia has coached juniors for years — U12s, U14s, academy kids — and she sees it as more than teaching basketball. “Off the court you’re still one of my kids,” she says. “I want you punctual, respectful. Sport makes you a better person.”
Opportunities have come. Overseas contracts. EuroCup interest. Bigger money. But Georgia has chosen Sheffield more than once.
“The grass isn’t always greener,” she says. “I learned that in college. I’m enjoying myself here. It’s not always about money.”
The team's recent partnership with the Sheffield Sharks has helped — financial stability, a home base, a future. She’s bought a house. She’s close with her mum. She’s in a city that raised her.
"I feel like I’m building something here. The kids look up to me. It’s a huge pull."
Georgia’s family tree is vast, intertwined, and rooted in the game. Her mum’s sisters played and coached at elite level. Her cousin, Quinn Ellis, plays professionally in Italy — and though some assume they’re siblings, Georgia laughs it off. “We’re that close. He used to live with us for months at a time. We’re a very close-knit family.”
The network she grew up in wasn’t just supportive — it was formative. Her mum coaches grassroots. Her aunt coaches high level. Her nan did everything. Her dad understood when to push and when to stay silent. Her coaches at Hatters gave her room to grow.
It’s no wonder Georgia feels basketball not just as a sport, but as inheritance.
At All-Saints Sports Centre, basecamp for the Sheffield Hatters, Georgia Gayle rocks the Puma x Bouncewear All-Pro Nitro 2. The shoe, like her story, represents a basketball lineage that connects community and family.
