24 March 2013
NIGERIA : Nineth Zenith Bank Women's League Dunks Off Today
All arrangements have been concluded for the jump ball of the 9th edition of the Zenith National Women's Basketball League Round 1 today at the Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Package 'B' Abuja. To make it more interesting and competitive, the NBBF added more teams from the earlier 10 teams to 16 this season. The 16 teams are grouped in two groups of 8 each. They are First Deepwater, Sunshine Angels, Nigeria Customs, FCT Angels and AHIP Queens make up Group A. Others include Coal City Queens, GT-2000 and Taraba Hurricanes. In Group B, there is First Bank, Dolphins, Delta Force, Nigeria Immigration, Plateau Rocks, Benue Queens, Oluyole Babes and Adamawa Super Flames.
The teams arrived on Thursday and were presented to the media yesterday as well as holding a technical meeting with the federation and officials before today's opening ceremony slated for 2pm. The opening game in Group A today will be a clash of Angels- involving Sunshine Angels and FCT Angels. Coach Emmanuel Odah of the FCT Angels said he is eyeing another memorable first phase and planning to finish among the top 3 at the end of the league. In Group B, Dolphins of Lagos will clash with Delta Force of Asaba in another game that promises to be thrilling.
Subsequent action will see new comers Coal City Queens of Enugu battle league veterans AHIP Queens of Kano while Benue Queens of Makurdi slug it out with Oluyole Babes from Ibadan. It will be a derby like clash when neighbors Adamawa Super Flames confront Taraba Hurricanes. Already for the purpose of inspiration to up-coming basketball talents, more than 20 FCT Secondary Schools with basketball bias have been invited to watch and get thrilled.
The invited schools will benefit from balls to be donated by the federation while top coaches including Emma Odah are slated to speak in a seminar for invited Games Masters on the rudiments of coaching basketball in schools. Nigeria Basketball Federation president, Tijjani Umar told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND SPORTS that already the federation has started a programme which runs concurrently in Abuja, Lagos and other cities to catch them young in schools.
According to him, beginning from the secondary was to help the federation frustrate the idea of having age cheats as it will avail them the opportunity of having legitimate students participate and be nurtured to play for the national teams.
The teams arrived on Thursday and were presented to the media yesterday as well as holding a technical meeting with the federation and officials before today's opening ceremony slated for 2pm. The opening game in Group A today will be a clash of Angels- involving Sunshine Angels and FCT Angels. Coach Emmanuel Odah of the FCT Angels said he is eyeing another memorable first phase and planning to finish among the top 3 at the end of the league. In Group B, Dolphins of Lagos will clash with Delta Force of Asaba in another game that promises to be thrilling.
Subsequent action will see new comers Coal City Queens of Enugu battle league veterans AHIP Queens of Kano while Benue Queens of Makurdi slug it out with Oluyole Babes from Ibadan. It will be a derby like clash when neighbors Adamawa Super Flames confront Taraba Hurricanes. Already for the purpose of inspiration to up-coming basketball talents, more than 20 FCT Secondary Schools with basketball bias have been invited to watch and get thrilled.
The invited schools will benefit from balls to be donated by the federation while top coaches including Emma Odah are slated to speak in a seminar for invited Games Masters on the rudiments of coaching basketball in schools. Nigeria Basketball Federation president, Tijjani Umar told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND SPORTS that already the federation has started a programme which runs concurrently in Abuja, Lagos and other cities to catch them young in schools.
According to him, beginning from the secondary was to help the federation frustrate the idea of having age cheats as it will avail them the opportunity of having legitimate students participate and be nurtured to play for the national teams.
# posted by afrbk : 10:55
