15 September 2010
BOTSWANA : Francistown Flames basketball team confident of beating the odds
by Obusitse Kologwe
africabasket.com
Despite financial challenges, the Flames, a Francistown basketball team, vows that nothing will derail their dream to take the league in the country some day. In an interview with the Sunday Standard, the Guyana-born coach of the team, Marvin Griffith, said that life may not be rosy for the team but he is very confident that the team will someday flourish and put Francistown on the map. I am very confident as I speaking to you because we have beat big teams, like Spartans, and recently we played a tournament in Gaborone where we did not lose a single match, Griffith said.
He said that Basketball, like any other sport, has its own adversaries. He added that there is still a need, especially in Francistown, for the sport to be cultivated at root level, that is to sensitize it among children at early ages. He pointed out that although the sport is still in its infancy stages in Francistown and in the country at large, he foresees great potential if only the sport could be promoted among the young ones. However stressing on the challenges, Griffith maintained that lack of basketball courts, funds and lack of professional coaches remains a mammoth task for the team.
He added that the team has so far embarked on first promoting its games by playing hard and wining games to try and lure the interest of sponsors. The other thing that I need to highlight is that although we are going through hard times due to the mentioned challenges, we have so far managed to come up with training camps to train the youth at primary and secondary school to develop the love for basketball in the city, he said. He stressed that since the establishment of the sports camps, there is much growth in basketball interest among the youth.
Griffith added that their performance lately has been very impressive and they are looking forward to surprise the basketball teams in Botswana some day. He also mentioned that the only sponsors they benefited from this year was BECOR Brick, a Francistown-based company that sponsored their trip to play their Gaborone tournaments. We are currently looking at the second half of the league and we are very confident we are going to come up as victors, he maintained
africabasket.com
Despite financial challenges, the Flames, a Francistown basketball team, vows that nothing will derail their dream to take the league in the country some day. In an interview with the Sunday Standard, the Guyana-born coach of the team, Marvin Griffith, said that life may not be rosy for the team but he is very confident that the team will someday flourish and put Francistown on the map. I am very confident as I speaking to you because we have beat big teams, like Spartans, and recently we played a tournament in Gaborone where we did not lose a single match, Griffith said.
He said that Basketball, like any other sport, has its own adversaries. He added that there is still a need, especially in Francistown, for the sport to be cultivated at root level, that is to sensitize it among children at early ages. He pointed out that although the sport is still in its infancy stages in Francistown and in the country at large, he foresees great potential if only the sport could be promoted among the young ones. However stressing on the challenges, Griffith maintained that lack of basketball courts, funds and lack of professional coaches remains a mammoth task for the team.
He added that the team has so far embarked on first promoting its games by playing hard and wining games to try and lure the interest of sponsors. The other thing that I need to highlight is that although we are going through hard times due to the mentioned challenges, we have so far managed to come up with training camps to train the youth at primary and secondary school to develop the love for basketball in the city, he said. He stressed that since the establishment of the sports camps, there is much growth in basketball interest among the youth.
Griffith added that their performance lately has been very impressive and they are looking forward to surprise the basketball teams in Botswana some day. He also mentioned that the only sponsors they benefited from this year was BECOR Brick, a Francistown-based company that sponsored their trip to play their Gaborone tournaments. We are currently looking at the second half of the league and we are very confident we are going to come up as victors, he maintained
# posted by afrbk : 12:55
