THE arrival of US President Barack Obama in the
country means a lot for the local sports scene, especially basketball,
which for the past decade or so has received tremendous support from the world’s
basketball powerhouse.
Obama is well known for his love of sports. He
has always been a loyal basketball fan -- and later in his life, he became a
golf fan. The president supports his hometown basketball team, the Chicago
Bulls, and was quoted by the Guardian of UK in 2009 that whenever he gets a
spare moment to relax, he likes to check out their (Chicago Bulls) progress in
the sports pages.
Many hope Obama’s visit in Tanzania will inspire
young basketball players to progress and prosper in the sport and many expect
his two-day stay in the country will help add much thrust to the Tanzania
Basketball Federation (TBF) ambitions to reinvigorate the sport, which needs
expertise and investments on youth development programmes to grow.
Just early last month, TBF, backed by President
Jakaya Kikwete and through support from the US Embassy in Tanzania, appointed
experienced US coach Albert Sokaitis as Director of the National Basketball
Programmes. President Kikwete is paying salary of the US coach, who is highly
expected to help raise the standard of the sport and conduct clinics and
training to build the capacity of local coaches.
“I have been charged with the responsibility to
direct the men’s and women’s Olympic programmes and start a nation wide
grassroots basketball programme. Tanzania hopes to use basketball as a source
for developing leadership and teamwork while encouraging healthy activities for
their young adults,” the coach has said. TBF remained confident that his
(Sokaitis) arrival will help turn around the country’s basketball fortunes.
TBF Assistant Secretary General, Michael Maluwe,
said the arrival of the coach was a key step in the basketball promotion
particularly for young players, while the federation’s president Mussa Mziya
said the coach would embark on special programme to search for talents and
develop them for the period he will be in charge depending on the availability
of funds through sponsorship.
This is the first time for the basketball
federation to deploy a coach on a long term basis for promotion of the game. TBF
focuses on promotion of the game through participation of young players
particularly in schools where they are readily available. “We came to know coach
Sokaitis through another US basketball coach Greg Brittenham, who visited
Tanzania in 2012.
Later, we got a lot of information about him from
the internet on the good work he was doing in different countries – China,
Lebanon, etc. We were satisfied that Sokaitis is a supper coach,” said Maluwe.
Maluwe said since the TBF appointed Sokaitis to be the Tanzania basketball head
coach there has been a kind of awareness to the basketball community that the
country has now acquired the services and the kind of a coach it needed for
years.
“There is a bright future for Tanzania basketball
under Coach Al (Sokaitis). In just a short span of his reign, he has done a
tremendous job, training young coaches and secondary school kids. He also
managed to identify talented kids. “In fact, I and my colleagues at TBF are
happy and encouraged by what the coach is planning for the game in Tanzania.
Since we have talents around all ages, we believe
in few years to come, we will have a good number of players whom we believe can
bring back the lost hope,” said Maluwe. Definitely, the TBF and Sokaitis are
aware that massive investments especially on youth development programmes were a
must; if at all the country is to attain success in the sport.
Tanzania is facing acute shortage of play grounds
for all sports and for basketball the problem is even extensive magnitude. Only
few dilapidated basketball courts are available, meaning that there was a
limited space for youths to take part in the sport. Balls and other playing kits
such as jersey and boots also remains to be a big challenge as local corporate
have always been reluctant to support other sports other than -- football.
“What we need, and what Coach AL discovered in
Tanzania, is unavailability of enough basketball infrastructure – courts, balls
and other game equipments. We appeal to all people of basketball to assist
Tanzania to build this capacity in the game,” Maluwe said.
Maluwe believes that the Obama delegation will
not overlook sports and seized the opportunity to call for major investments to
help improve basketball standard in the country. He said since Obama was coming
with a delegation of business people, they (TBF) expect some of these business
people will help inspire giants’ sports kits/apparels manufacturing companies
such as Nike,
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