17 September 2014
NIGERIA : First Bank Starts Early Continental Preparation
Head Coach of First Bank Basketball Club of Lagos, Aderemi Adewunmi,
has defended his team's early preparation for the African Club Women
Basketball Championship qualifiers later this year.
The camping taking place at the ultra-modern basketball hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, started after the players were given about two months extended break after a hectic season.
The coach who masterminded a famous victory over Dolphins Basketball of Lagos in a pulsating final decided at the Indoor Sport Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos en-route the 2014 Championship revealed that "We started our preparation from August 18th because we do not want to wait for FIBA Africa's letter before we start getting ready as we actually don't know when the letter will be out."
"So, I decided we should start preparing for the tournament and we are still at it right now" "We have a lot of young girls and we need to work all the year round to turn them into champions, so anytime the letter comes, we are ready to play."
When quizzed whether the early preparation without any competitive match will not come around to haunt the team when the qualifiers starts, Adewunmi was quick to refute such claim and said a big club like First Bank with a rich history in women basketball in Nigeria cannot afford to joke with early and proper preparation.
"We have a tradition in First Bank Basketball club, we do not wait for official notifications before we start preparation even whenever we want to play the local league, we do not wait for Nigeria Basketball Federation to announce the commencement of the tournament before we start."
The 2013/2014 female league award winning coach was elusive on his club transfer policy as they prepare for continental challenges and was quick to jump to the defense of his player who has been together for the past four seasons saying barring any unforeseen circumstances, he may not bring in new faces.
"It depends on what happens because I believe in the present set of players because we have been working for the past four years and they are ripe enough to do well at the continental championship."
"If I want to come in with anybody, it's not going to be more than two players but right now, I am not thinking of anybody."
The camping taking place at the ultra-modern basketball hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, started after the players were given about two months extended break after a hectic season.
The coach who masterminded a famous victory over Dolphins Basketball of Lagos in a pulsating final decided at the Indoor Sport Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos en-route the 2014 Championship revealed that "We started our preparation from August 18th because we do not want to wait for FIBA Africa's letter before we start getting ready as we actually don't know when the letter will be out."
"So, I decided we should start preparing for the tournament and we are still at it right now" "We have a lot of young girls and we need to work all the year round to turn them into champions, so anytime the letter comes, we are ready to play."
When quizzed whether the early preparation without any competitive match will not come around to haunt the team when the qualifiers starts, Adewunmi was quick to refute such claim and said a big club like First Bank with a rich history in women basketball in Nigeria cannot afford to joke with early and proper preparation.
"We have a tradition in First Bank Basketball club, we do not wait for official notifications before we start preparation even whenever we want to play the local league, we do not wait for Nigeria Basketball Federation to announce the commencement of the tournament before we start."
The 2013/2014 female league award winning coach was elusive on his club transfer policy as they prepare for continental challenges and was quick to jump to the defense of his player who has been together for the past four seasons saying barring any unforeseen circumstances, he may not bring in new faces.
"It depends on what happens because I believe in the present set of players because we have been working for the past four years and they are ripe enough to do well at the continental championship."
"If I want to come in with anybody, it's not going to be more than two players but right now, I am not thinking of anybody."
# posted by afrbk : 19:30
