Mr Mallon is the basketball coordinator and an English teacher at Hunter Sports High School, and dabbles in consultancy work for the Brisbane Bullets and Newcastle Basketball teams.

For several years he wrote a column for The Mercury about "memory, history and life in Maitland," and these days enjoys writing poetry which he says is about anything that crosses his line of sight.

"All you need is an open window to write poems, I still enjoy writing about the things that happen in the daily circle of life here on the floodplain."

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Mr Mallon's family includes his two children, Floyd and Edith, a dog named Russell and his wife, "the luckiest girl in the LGA," according to Mr Mallon, Barbara.

The pair met through a mutual friend, and first locked eyes when Mr Mallon was freshly out of a yoga class wearing socks and sandals, eating a potato scallop.

"I think there was just a little dab of tomato sauce on my lip and just the saltiness of it all, that was it she was sort of captured... she thought oh my god look at this guy, he looks so zen. He's the one," he said.

Mr Mallon was born in Maitland and says it's his home, his country and is in his blood.

"It's part of who I am and we love it so that's why we're still here - we like the pace and the space.

"I've been around the world but I come back, I haven't ventured too far," he said.

Mr Mallon's travels around the world include moving to the US to play basketball for Yuba College, and taking the Australian National 19 and Under men's basketball team to the world championships four times as a coach.

These events saw Mr Mallon travel to Argentina, Serbia, New Zealand and Greece, whilst coaching the likes of Patty Mills and Matt Dellavedova who have gone on to become Olympic medalists with the Boomers in Tokyo.

Mr Mallon explained it was lovely to have that involvement with players who have won NBA championships and Olympic medals as someone coming from Maitland.

"There is an amazing tradition of basketball in Maitland and Newcastle, Maitland has been going since 1957 and Newcastle is the birthplace of the NBL.

"That's why I don't want to go and move away and be a part of other teams, Maitland's got a really great club and so many wonderful people that are still involved in Maitland basketball."

Mr Mallon grew up playing for the Maitland Mustangs and said he regularly sees his coach and teammates around town, who he won a state championship with in 1990.

In 2009, Mr Mallon was recognised by the local basketball competition when they introduced the Kibble-Mallon Cup, a trophy to recognise the contribution of Mr Mallon and fellow basketball icon Denis Kibble to basketball in the Hunter.

According to Mr Mallon, the people of Maitland are pretty comfortable in their own skin.

"It's a bit of an eclectic bunch, we're half farmer, half miner, half coastal - this hybrid of people who aren't too pretentious."

"There's a pleasant familiarity with things without being overly familiar.

"Maitland is this nice size, like the Goldilocks zone - not too small and not too big."

Mr Mallon studied history, philosophy and english at university, and became a teacher because he enjoys coaching young people, which he had plenty of experience and success in from basketball.

He would have you believe though, that the thing he loves most about teaching is the constant close access to sausage rolls at the canteen and the ringing of the school bells which makes him feel like he's at home, walking down High Street listening to the post office clock bell.

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