However, Deacon has been a stalwart of Sussex basketball for more than 35 years, with most of it being as a coach at the junior level.
And he even mentored a current Great Britain star during his younger days.
"Basically, I wasn't a good player, so I started my coaching career very young," Deacon said, who will succeed Zaire Taylor at the Thunder helm.
"I decided that was going to be what I was good at. So, I started coaching local league men when I was 18 or 19 years old; I used to have my own club, the Shoreham Sharks and did a lot of senior coaching there as well.
"Then I got moved into the South East programmes with Aspire, and that just improved me even more; I leaned on Basketball England to get the training I needed.
"More recently, Sussex Bears, I also got involved with them through my son. I have five children that all play basketball, and I have now moved on to Thunder, which is sort of like a home coming for me because I coached Luke Nelson back in his junior days at under-16s, so it's great to be back."
Returning to Worthing to lead the Thunder in their 25th year as a National Basketball League club, Deacon has taken over a team used to competing for trophies.
However, that was not the case last season, as the South Coast club struggled, finishing 11th with a 7-17 record.
There were signs of fight, out of those 17 losses, eight were by single digits and there were significant wins but, ultimately, the campaign ended without post-season basketball for the first time since 2017.
Given the chance at a fresh chapter and a clean slate, Deacon sees the potential in his team to make progress with the KitKing Trophy – starting on Saturday with a Group 1 opener at home to Barking Abbey - in the build-up to their NBL1 season opener at Nottingham Hoods early next month.
"All games will be tough this season, all teams have recruited well, and the level of competition will be extremely high," Deacon said.
"It comes down to how well we practice. We had no practices during pre-season, so we did that on the fly. We will take each game as it comes and play to our strengths.
"Over the last few years, we have all seen the standard of the NBL1 step up, and it's now at its most competitive level. Because of that, players want to come and play in this league, even the import players, so everything is stepping up.
"For me, I'm a great believer in team basketball, and individuals don't work on my team, and I hope I can give the fans here at Thunder an entertaining style of basketball that they will enjoy."
With Deacon taking over coaching responsibilities from Taylor, who remains at the club as one of the two directors alongside Sara Jenner, this is his chance to put his own stamp on the club and do things his way.
"My aspirations are that I want to win trophies," Deacon said.
"I want to do well, and I know every coach says that it's an obvious goal, but you want to be able to do these things and give these players that chance at this level.
"Also, it's a big time for the club; it's the 25th year, so we want to make it a success."
With years of experience on the junior side, Deacon is keen to give the youngsters some much-needed senior involvement in the hopes that it will inspire the next generation of Thunder players.
"Zaire has seen me coach, and I think he had a certain respect for me, which was great," Deacon added.
"I described the style of play that I liked to have, which is very open, very much a read-and-react style of play, and we want to try to fill the spots coming through based on that.
"We got guys coming in, youngsters, which is another big thing for me, getting youngsters into the team. It's important for them and important for the kids that are watching to look at the players at 19, playing in Division 1 and inspiring them, so it's another big thing for me."
And with those words, who knows, in another 25 years, we can see the next batch of Worthing players excelling and following in the footsteps of Worthing's own Luke Nelson.
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Words: John Hobbs
Pictures: Gary Robinson
