Basketball in Africa

by Sammy Kitula
Nairobi

Mombasa High School girls' basketball team coach Philip Onyango and the St Austin's Academy coach David Maina will guide the under-18 boys' and girls' teams for the Zone Five qualifiers to be held in Uganda.
The two coaches were selected on Tuesday by the Kenya Basketball Federation. Onyango will handle the girls' team while Maina will coach the boys' team.
In a letter to the two coaches, KBF secretary general Vitalis Gode said a provisional team would be constituted in a week ahead of the games in August.
"Your immediate assignment will be to name a provisional team in preparation for the Zone Five under-18 Nations Championship scheduled for Kampala, Uganda," said part of the statement.
"You will also be required to liaise with respective handlers of the players at their respective stations pending formal camp training."

Although KBF scouts used the recent first term one games at Mangu High School to select some of the players, they will coordinate with respective district and provincial officials to have more players added to the provisional squad.
The federation's first vice-chairman, Henry Shihemi, said the scouts would recommend names of players and their coaches to be forwarded to the newly appointed coaches.
"We have already identified several players during the school games, but we still are scouting for more, after which we will release the programs for their training. We are expecting more players before we announce the final team," said Shihemi.
About 25 players are expected to be named in the initial team.
The regional under-18 tournament, earlier scheduled for July, will be held in Kampala in August and will feature junior teams from Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya.
After finishing second to Egypt during the last edition in 2006, Shihemi said they were determined to reclaim the title this time round.
"In 2006, we lost in the finals to Egypt, but this time round, we will have proper preparations and hope to perform better," said the vice-chairman.
Although this will be his first time to coach coach a national junior team, Maina is up to the challenge.
"This is a very big challenge for me, but with my experience, I'm sure that we won't let the country down," said Maina.

Maina guided KPA to the Premier League finals for two years running during his stint as their coach between 1997 and 2000. He has also guided St Austin's to four national finals.
His Mombasa High School counterpart Onyango is equally of wealthy experience, having guided his school side to 17 national finals, winning eight times.
According to Onyango, having the country take part in the championship after a two-year absence was the way to go.
"Kenya needs to get its bearing right for the game to grow. We should concentrate on rebuilding junior teams for the posterity of the national team, failure to which, our future is on the brink of collapse," he said.
"For us to surge forward, we should, as a matter of necessity, retrace where we went wrong with the junior teams," he added.