MyBasketball

Before the Camp began and even after it was underway the underlying problem around it was the fact that the venue was moved at the last minute and the communication to the affected players and coaches wasn’t forthcoming in a speedy manner. With BSA still relying heavily on the support of the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa, they had to bring it to the HPC in Pretoria because of their existing relationship with SRSA so the process was going to be smoother than taking it to the North West University High Performance Institute. But with the change of venues, this created a series of problems for BSA as far as trying to organize adequate venues for the teams to practice.

With the teams arriving in Tshwane on Wednesday 4^th February in the evening, the first real contact the coaches had with the players was on Thursday at the High Performance Center in Pretoria. For the first 2 days of the camp, the players stayed at the Protea Hotel and finally moved to the HPC on Friday. With practice venues an issue, The men spent the 1^st day of training on Thursday at Pilditch Stadium indoor center in Pretoria West and the ladies managed to organize the indoor facility at St Mary’s DSG in Hatfield even if they had to use the outdoor courts at Tuks in their afternoon session. With 4 players missing from the men and 3 from the ladies team due to various reasons like work and studies; the attendance of the camp by both the ladies and the men’s team was satisfactory if not excellent.

On the 2^nd day of the camp, Basketball South Africa president Malesela Maleka and first Vice President Dr Malumbete Ralethe spoke to the players to welcome them and explain to them what they expected from them in terms of responsibility and the way forward for the senior team. Later in the evening, players got a chance to raise their concerns in a private meeting with the BSA management and hopefully this is a sign of things to come from this new BSA board.

Read the rest of this entry →