Basketball coaches receive training

JUSTISIA SHIPENA
Ester Kamati

Basketball is one of the celebrated sports in the county, especially at elementary school level.

The Namibia Basketball School League, after noticing this, partnered with the Namibia Basketball Federation (NBL) to organise a basketball clinic for school coaches.

The training took place at the Basketball Artists’ School (BAS) in Katutura on 9 and 10 March and accommodated 20 school coaches. The coaches hailed from various local high and primary schools in the Khomas Region including, DHPS, Dawid Bezuidenhout and Elim Primary School, to mention a few.

The Technical Basketball Academy and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit also partook in the training.

NBF secretary-general and project coordinator of the school league, Ramah Mumba, said that the aim of the project is to equip school coaches with the necessary skills to transfer to their teams.

Mumba said the NBF is running a programme called ‘Sport for development’ that aims to teach learners life skills through basketball, and during the training, coaches were also equipped with the tactics to do so.

Namibia Basketball School League coordinator, Malakia Matias, highlighted that when doing sport, everybody is themselves and that makes it easier for the coaches to get through to the scholars when it comes to social issues.

Matias said learners from different backgrounds may be exposed to various issues that they may not know how to deal with or they may not have a place to express themselves and the basketball sessions are the right platform.

Malakia added that the initiative aims to develop basketball at grassroots level and that is why they targeted primary and high schools.

He added it is better to work with these groups now than at a later stage and expressed pride in the number of teams that regularly participate in their programmes.

The training was conducted by Malakia and Mumba, who have gained coaching and training experience over the years.

Immanuel Shifidi coach, Eunah Kariwo, who is a teacher by profession, described the course as informative.

“Teachers should be serious about implementing what they have learned and should keep the learners actively involved”, said Kariwo.

She urged fellow teachers and coaches to assist were they can in tutoring or looking for tutors for their teams.

The ‘Sport for development’ programme that was introduced four years ago grows bigger with each year, as more teams come on board.

With the view that learners relate more to their coaches than anyone else, the programme is scheduled for major growth.

ester@myzone.com.na