AMERICAN Tom Newell officially bounced off his weeklong FIBA Level 1 Coaching clinic on Monday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with coaches from Linden, Georgtown, Berbice and Kwakwani. The event, which will see the participants gain FIBA Level One status upon completion, is being funded by the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) under the Olympic Solidarity Programme, and according to president K.A. Juman-Yassin, they were pleased to help bolster the development of the game of basketball in Guyana.
However, Yassin urged the coaches to “stick around” and impart their knowledge to the younger players especially, during his address at the officially opening ceremony.
“The problem is that you will see a lot of people turn up for these kind of courses but in actuality when it’s done, you can’t find half the people that were there because they leave and those who stick around few of them show interest, so I’m urging you to please make use of it,” said the GOA boss.
Yassin also said that while the Clinic is costing the GOA a hefty sum, “it’s money well spent”, declaring that “these things happen very rarely and as such we at the GOA are very pleased to support it on the first word.
“We know that it will go a far way in helping the federation (GABF) to reach its goal and with that again we are glad to help make it happen.”
Meanwhile, David Patterson, president of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), said that this is just a stepping stone for what the GABF has planned as he hinted that in August, the federation is aiming to conduct a Level 2 coaching clinic.
Patterson said that he was pleased with the turnout of coaches who ranged from school teachers to those who are part of 1st, 2nd and 3rd division teams from the various associations affiliated to the GABF.
Facilitator Tom Newell, before heading into details about what the clinic would entail, gave a brief background about his life in basketball, dating back to his father Pete Newell, who was the winning coach of the 1960 USA Olympic basketball team that had the likes of the NBA logo man and basketball great Jerry West and Oscar Robertson.
Newell spoke about his life in the NBA where he served as the assistant coach of the Seattle Supersonics (now known as the Oklahoma City Thunders), New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks.
He first started as an NBA scout for the Golden State Warriors before joining the Seattle bench as the assistant coach from 1984 to 1990, having a brief stint as the head coach of the Supersonics in 1989 and has also represented FIBA as one of its Expert Instructors in its Olympic Development Progamme.
Upon his arrival in Guyana on Sunday morning he hosted a practice session with players primarily from Georgetown at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.