Jos basketball academy to groom players for Nigeria

Founder, Rebirth Basketball Academy, Jos, Mr. Solomon Pam, has said that the academy was focused on grooming young talents for the national basketball team.Pam told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Jos that the primary aim of the Academy, which was established in March, was to seek out and groom talents in basketball to shore up Nigerias quest for laurels in the sport.There is a dearth of quality players for the national basketball team, the situation has left the country far behind its contemporaries in the game and we want to turn around Nigerias fortune in the game, he said.The founder, who is also a basketball coach, said that the academy, an affiliate of the Plateau Sports Council, would train the youngsters in secular academics alongside basketball skills.We are catching them young to give them foundation in both academics and basketball so as to ensure a balance between the two, he said.According to him, enrolment age is between nine years and 15 years, stressing that other conditions include a payment of N2,000 fee to enable the new students to get training kits.Pam said that one of the students had already secured a scholarship to study and develop his skills in the United States of America, through the efforts of the young academy.We took our boys to some competitions within Jos and neigbouring cities like Abuja and Bauchi, where they performed very well. The performance attracted scouts, who singled out the beneficiary for that special attention.He said that the competitions helped to expose the students and prepared them physically and mentally for the activities of the Academy.The founder identified poor sponsorship as the main problem confronting the academy, and blamed that on the poor appreciation of the game among Nigerians.
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