With what would have seemed like a huge mess to someone else, I vividly remember the stacks of my belongings scattered about the
floor of my condo's second bedroom last May. It was an arduous task
prioritizing what to bring and what to leave behind. I'd pack up two
bags with yet still some important things left out, so I'd unpack and
re-prioritize. Despite this vicious cycle that carried on during the
days preceding my departure, the few things that never made it close
to the chopping block were two baseball gloves, two balls, and a
bat. I expected to face some challenges to introduce baseball in a soccer-crazed nation (or continent, for
that matter), but I was steadfast in my ambition to share the game with a
population that had only the slightest understanding of its existence
in the first place. But as well intentioned as this idea seemed to be,
it was quickly apparent that a full-fledged baseball operation here
would be nearly impossible to sustain at the end of my service given
the various cultural, geographical, and financial obstacles presented.
While my first experiences with baseball in Bafia were successful in
that the kids were openly curious and endlessly enthusiastic about
hitting, catching, and throwing a baseball, any additional
participation above the use of what little equipment I brought (or
had mailed to me) from the States always left a cadre of would-be
baseballers on the sidelines. Sure, we could certainly write letters
and employ the help of the baseball do-gooders around the
world, but obvious logistical
questions stood in the way. How much would it cost? How long would
it take to get here? And most importantly, would there be enough
stuff for the lefties so we don't leave them out? However, the
secondary questions were similarly difficult to answer and bothered me the most. Where are we going to play? Who
are they going to play against? Will the
program last beyond my service? After all of this consideration, I convinced myself that it would probably be better to get things started on the basketball court. Do be sure to check out
my 'brother's' website though, as PC Cameroon's Original John Jack
has established a well-oiled machine of a baseball program up in
Kaele, Extreme North --- http://diamondsforcameroon.blogspot.com/.
Getting
Started
Of the two basketball courts in Guider, the one most frequented is at
the largest of the three lycées and is less than a five minute
walk from my house. During those first couple months at post it vaguely resembled a basketball court only because the rims were round and
rested ten feet above the ground and the backboards were rectangular
with a black square painted in the center. Otherwise, there were no
nets, the lines of the court were badly faded, and a wheelbarrow's
worth of dirt, sand, and garbage needed to be swept off of it. Then
shortly after the first ball and two nets arrived fresh from the USA
thanks to Mom, the local children came to enjoy the look and sound of
the ball every time it tumbled through the basket and have been
showing up to play almost every day of the week since then.
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| Net installation |
As with almost every Peace Corps project or activity, two of the most
challenging aspects of our work is finding the money and generating
sufficient enthusiasm from the local population. Without both of
these, any project is doomed from the outset. In the case of our
basketball club, it has been an uphill battle because
it is unrealistic to expect that a principal with overcrowded
classrooms and an understaffed faculty would pay more than an
occasional visit to the basketball court. With that in mind, my
request to participants was for us to be well organized in our
practices while taking care of the court we have, regardless of
its condition. As such, we began sharing the responsibility
to sweep off the court once per week --- typically before a 6:00 am weekend practice
--- and we would also emphasize the importance of showing up on time
with tennis shoes. Then, perhaps after demonstrating such
commitment, we could then talk to the principal about the
severely slanted rim and badly faded lines on the court.
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| Taking care of our business, sweeping the court |
Practice
Time
Four months and countless hours of practice time later, it would be
hard to imagine a more enthusiastic group of young kids on a
basketball court. Admittedly, it isn't the hardest thing to
encourage children to play sports here in Cameroon, as it only takes ten minutes of shooting on the court by myself
before ten kids are standing nearby to watch hoping to play as well, but I have found it to
be quite remarkable on certain days to be walking to the basketball
court before our 4:00 pm start time only to see them already running
warm-up laps. In what is typically an 'African Time' mentality, in
that most meetings and appointments routinely begin several minutes or hours after
originally intended, many of our practices have started either on
'American Time' or shortly before that.
As was described more eloquently in a recent article about the infrastructure and existence of good coaching of basketball here in
Africa --- which can be found here --- our group of
kids were, and still very much are, behind the rest of the developed
world in this regards. Most had trouble dribbling with both hands, could not make a
simple lay-up, nor did they have an idea about how to shoot a proper
jump shot. However, with that generous supply of basketballs from
home, which was supplemented by two additional balls from the North
Region's Sports Delegue, we started from the bottom up with drills suited
for the most basic level of basketball skills. Dribbling squares,
relay races, form shooting, and passing drills.
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| Young basketballer fundamentals: form shooting and dribble squares |
One of the biggest personal challenges, without a doubt, was having
to do all of this in a language that can still be classified as a
type of fran-glish. Some of the most necessary and basic words and
phrases are drilled into our head during our language training at the
beginning of service, but teaching a lay-up drill is not all that
high on the list when compared to 'where is the bathroom,' 'can you
give me directions to the bank,' or 'what is the price of that giant
bottle of ice cold castel be...errrr coca-cola?' Without a doubt, it has
been my stumbling and bumbling in french while teaching technical
basketball drills and proper fundamentals that have provided the most
comic relief to the youth of Guider. How to make a bounce-pass,
jumping off your left foot for a right-handed lay-up, and staying
with your assigned player while on defense are only a few of the
things I have had to learn in french over the last several months.
However, I would be lying if I said the whole program would have been
just as effective without the help of a dedicated lycée-aged student
who has volunteered his time to be as much of a coach as I have since
the beginning.
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| David, the other coach for the young basketballers |
The
Teams
As is the case for young athletes back in the States, the youth of
Cameroon similarly have an opportunity to play sports via two
different avenues: school teams and club teams. However, it is
through the regular training for the club teams that ultimately
determine the best players for each of the teams at the primary and
lycée schools. In the case for our club, it was decided that all of
our training would work towards what is arguably the year's biggest
event for youth sports, FENASSCO, the organized tournament at each of
the departmental, regional, and national levels. With that in mind,
the days of the week were divided such that each level would have a
chance to train together in advance of the tournament.
This was a simple plan that
seemingly could not be complicated by anything outside of an
occasional torrential downpour or scorching heat, but I have since
learned that excuses and general apathy can be present in youth here
in Cameroon just the same as they are back in the States. Granted, the older of the two teams often is
filled with those who generally have more homework and responsibility
around the house than their younger siblings, but it was quite a
struggle to have regular and consistent practices with the same group
of kids. Weekend practices at 6:00 am often started late and were
rarely attended by the
best players --- and keep in mind that it was a 6:00 am start at their
request! For any coach or teacher, their excuses must sound
familiar: 'I have too much homework,' or 'I was doing my chores,' or
'my house is all the way on the other side of town.' Furthermore, it was noticeably more difficult to get
these players to take any instructional tips to improve their
fundamentals. Pick-up games regularly devolved into bad impressions
of NBA highlights, countless three-point airballs (even though all
airballs carry a penalty of five push-ups), and bickering back and
forth about who fouled who. Should have figured that when I started
working with teenagers, I guess.
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| The lycée team |
Adolescent rebellion aside, the youngest of our two teams is
certainly the model by which the success of our club can be measured.
With what started as a group of kids that were furious at me for
kicking them off the basketball court because it was being used as a
soccer pitch, we soon evolved into that enthusiastic cadre of crazed
basketballers that I mentioned at the beginning. I'm not sure if it
was the strangeness of finally having their own dedicated time and
place on the court, as opposed to being relegated to the sidelines of
the 'big boy's' game all these years (for any and every sport), but
this group has shown me how much fun coaching can be when kids are
willing to dive in head-first.
Game
Time
Since arriving in country, I have seen children
play all types of sports such as handball, volleyball, gymnastics, and martial arts.
And with the exception of volleyball, which requires a specific ball
and a formally constructed net (but can still be played on a dirt
surface), I can see why these sports (along with soccer) have become
so popular: the barriers to entry are very low. Handball doesn't
require anything more complicated than does soccer, and
gymnastics or martial arts can be done with no equipment at all. As
for basketball, a court with baskets must be constructed, and one
must often go to a far away regional capital to find an adequate
ball. And it is those barriers to entry that required each of our
two teams to play only one qualification game to make it to the
regional tournament --- as the two other major towns in our
department do not have basketball teams.
Standing in our way was the owner of the only other basketball court
here in Guider, a males-only private seminary school of about 110 students.
To give some perspective, I regularly help out in english class at
the largest lycée with classes in excess of 110 students. Needless to say,
regardless of their selectivity in choosing their student body, both
of our teams should have been able to dominate these private
schoolers on size and athletic ability alone. In theory.
As could have been predicted by anyone paying attention during our
months of training before my older team's game against the seminary
school, my kids brought the same arrogance and overconfidence to the
game as they had brought to practice. And in what was perfectly
representative of this overconfidence, we nearly forfeited the match
because most of the team did not arrive on time. This ended up being
perfect foreshadowing for what was to come over the next four
quarters, as the lure of beating the big boys from the big school
drove those private schoolers to out-hustle and out-play us such that
we had little chance of a comeback after just three quarters of
basketball.
As one would expect with what was an embarrassing loss,
blame was thrown in every direction, especially at me for making
inappropriate substitutions. I would certainly agree with them in
that doing so did not put the most talent on the court, but I felt
it was necessary to award playing time to guys that had shown up
consistently for training. If we were going to lose, I would rather
do it with guys that put in the work, as opposed to those who only
showed up on game day. The one parting shot to the team when I
was finally able to distract them from all the finger pointing, was
that in the same way one wouldn't expect to receive a passing grade
on a test without studying, one shouldn't expect to win a game without
practicing. Having seen the other team celebrate a well-earned
victory with what was at least half of their student
body watching courtside, I was surprisingly happy for them because it was apparent that they put in the hard work beforehand.
As for our younger team, its easy enough to say that they took care
of business. Like their older brothers, they were bigger and more
talented, however, they used it in such a way that could not be
overcome by another scrappy team of private schoolers. I don't
remember the score exactly, though it wasn't at all close, but our kids
were justifiably elated in the victory. And while I'm not sure how
many times my other coach and I said it to each other during the
preceding months, it was quite obvious how far this group had come
since those first few weeks of constantly missed lay-ups and
inability to dribble with both hands. So after all of that hard work and training, Guider would be sending a primary school team to the North Region FENASSCO "B" tournament for the first time.
