Organisers of the New Hope Basketball Championship holding inside the Indoor Sports Hall of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin, have stated that their inspiration in organising it is to take the youngsters off social vices and channel their energies to positive direction.
Said US based Osaheni Fred Iduwe, the Chief Organiser of the tournament: “Our idea of new hope is more than Basketball. Our idea of new hope goes beyond Basketball. We do vocational studies as well. We teach kids how to become better people. How to respect themselves and how to move the nation forward.
“Our slogan is we develop minds and we transform lives. Our main idea is we bring all the kids that have talent some of them may not have the talent to go to America but we give them pathway forward for them to be able to establish themselves here in Nigeria.”
Adding his voice to Iduwe’s narrative, Coach Umoru Victor, member, Nigeria Basketball Federation Technical Committee called on well meaning Nigerians and Edolites to support the initiative “because it is a whole lot of workload. Be that as it may we are thanking the Edo State Government especially the Chairman of the State Sports Commission(Yusuf Alli) having provided the facility(venue) and support.”
In his own submission, Rivers State based Coach Henry Fubura Onyanabo, who is an assistant coach of the national team, D’Tigers, alluded to the fact that the competition is timely as it will serve to engage the youngsters positively and keep them off the streets.
The competition, which have 12 participating teams spread across the country made up of eight male and four female teams, ended a two day camping and clinic programme on Wednesday with the competition proper commencing on Thursday morning(4th April) and ending on Sunday, April 7th.
