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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
NEWLY-appointed Bulawayo Basketball Association (BBA) secretary general, Francis Dube, says the creation of a vibrant junior policy is key to the development and upgrading of the sport in the city.
The BBA league is set to roar to life at the beginning of next month with the official pre-season tournament tentatively set for end of this month.
“First of all, the thrust is to try and improve the sport at grassroots level to the national teams and we will be putting up provincial structures and make them more visible. The most important thing is to work hand-in-hand with the National Association of Primary School Heads (Naph) and National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash).
“We want to close the gap between Nash and Naph so that we have continuity in terms of players starting from primary to secondary school, then club level. The only way the sport can grow is if we have a vibrant junior policy where we have players being groomed from a young age,” said Dube.
A fortnight ago BBA appointed a new executive that will serve up to 2021.
The new BBA executive is made up of seven members with veteran Ernie Nobel coming in as the president, Dube is the new secretary-general, Geraldin Chibonda (competitions manager), Sinda Mono (technical) and Admire Masirirambi is the treasurer. Pretty Tinarwo will handle the women and the youths while Bulelo Mangoma is in charge of athletes’ commission. The new executive is also considering enlisting academies into its league programme for the season as well as spreading the game to the western suburbs of the city. The BBA league consists of Lakers, Southern Mavericks, National University of Science and Technology, Lupane State University, Highlanders, Giants, Ostrich, City Knights and Oilers. Some have both men and women’s teams. – @innocentskizoe.
Online Reporter