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WHAT WE DO
PRactice & school
WEEKLY PRACTICE
Monday through friday practice is from 4 to 6 pm. The warm up is lead by the U16-players until one of our coaches is back from work, which is mostly Prince. Saturday’s practice is early to beat the sun, from 8 to 11 am. Practices are mixed, focussed on our U13 and U16 players and take place at KLM Playground. The U18 players mostly train at the „Chinese Court“, which is closeby and reserved for older players. Sundays are for learning sessions, such as english, mathematics or even robotics, but also for fun activities like watching a game or a movie at coach Andy’s place.
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
Special occasions, such as holidays or tournaments, call for special actions: Tournaments and games mostly take place in Accra, so that means travelling to the capital and back. It also means playing against and meeting young players from other cities’ teams and the exciting addition of having a crowd watching. During holidays both our players and our coaches are free to practice and play more and bring out little treats for the players like soft drinks, snacks or new basketballs.
SCHOOL & STUDYING
During weeks close to school exams the court is closed and time is spent learning together. Apart from coaching our own players, we try to expand our reach and teach the game of basketball in primary schools closeby. Currently we cooperate with three schools in Tema, as well as one school in Accra and their physical education teachers in particular. Whenever we and they can agree on a time schedule we visit their P.E. class and show them the basics of the game we love and that taught us so much, when we were young.
Renovations
backboard
floor 1
floor 2
seating area
tribute wall
KLM PLAYGROUND RENOVATION
Our most important project in 2024 is a complete renovation of KLM Playground. In the past, there have been injuries due to the poor condition of the floor, the backboard has holes in it and the seating area that once existed next to the court has fallen apart due to wear and tear of time and weather.
ARTISTC PAInting
Also next to the court is our „tribute wall“ that needs re-doing. It houses all the names of the community members living around the court and fosters identification with and pride for the place that everybody is involved in. After the court is reconstructed, we want to artistically re-paint it . The plan is to have local artists do this and also integrate art-interested kids from surrounding schools to design the court with them.
u13 3x3 tournament 2024
Finally we want to host our third Basketball Unite 3on3-tournament on the newly renovated court. This time it will be the U13-edition again, with teams coming from Tema and surrounding cities and areas like Ashaiman and Accra. During the tournament the following will be honoured and awarded: the winning teams, the best teamwork, the young artists and the adult artists who designed and painted te court.
games & tournaments
BAsketball City ACCRA
Most ouf our young teams’ games and tournaments are being held outside of Tema, with most games taking place in the capital city Accra. They can be of different natures: Sometimes just one of our players may take part in a tournament for talented players with scouts watching, whole teams may go for a classic 5on5 tournament, or we might just give our youngest teams some scrimmage-game playing-exposure as a runner up for another tournament.
SHowcasing their skills
In any case we want to give them the opportunity to play in the big games and tournaments, showcase their skills and experience the world of basketball as a team and with other teams. There may just be the chance of being picked up by a bigger team, let alone a scholarship abroad. Of course this generates costs as well, since we have to bring them all to Accra and safely back to their hometown of Tema, which is roughly an hour and a half drive away.
VISION
The long shot
We know it is a long shot, but you have to envision it to make it possible: In the long rung we want to build and run a basketball children and youth center in Community 4 in Tema! We won’t say where exactly yet, but we know where we would build it. It would be a full basketball court with protection from the sun, surrounded by a building that houses an office and a meeting room, a study hall for the kids to learn, shower and changing rooms, as well as housing for international youth and coaching exchanges.
a basketball unite internationl youth center
The road to this vision is long and we know that, but we are going to be here for a while and we will keep building Basketball Unite into an NGO that will last and educate kids for decades to come. So there will be a few stepping stones before that vision can come to bloom and we will take all of them consciously, but we will get there in our timeframe.
