With the Namibia Basketball Federation (NBF) having recently advertised the positions of head coach for the national men and women’s teams, NBF president Nigel Mubita says filling the positions is part of the federation’s bigger turnaround strategy.
Speaking to this publication yesterday, Mubita explained that the decision to recruit new mentors for the national teams is part of the NBF’s long-term plan of reviving the fortunes of local basketball, with the hope of seeing Namibia joining other top African nations on the international arena.
“The purpose is to really come up with strong national basketball teams that will compete at international levels. The coaches will be tasked with the responsibility to oversee the overall development of the sport at grassroots level within the 14 regions of the country. That also means making sure that Namibia becomes competitive on the continent and be counted among the best,” he said.
Not only is the NBF searching for coaches for the senior teams; it is also looking to recruit a head coach for the country’s U/12 and U/23 junior sides, who will be responsible for assisting in the development and execution of the NBF’s long-term player development model.
Meanwhile, NBF secretary general Titus Mwahafa also shared a similar outlook, saying the federation has been hard at work, formulating various initiatives that will elevate the competitiveness of Namibia on the continent and the world.
Mwahafa said one of the short-term goals is to see Namibia securing her place in the highly-popular AfroBasket Championship, which is Africa’s premium men’s basketball championship contested by countries’ senior national teams. It is played once every four
years.
“The initiative is to really innovate – and it is upon us to make sure that we have competitive teams participating at international competitions. We have the AfroBasket qualifiers taking place later this year, so we are looking at all those competitions,” he said.
“We want to send a team through the Region-5 banner to compete at those events. So, there is a lot that we are trying to do at the moment. Let me urge all local coaches to come forth and apply for these positons, so that we can have everyone on board as we embark upon making the future bright.”
- mkambukwe@nepc.com.na