The 18th edition of the Olumide Oyedeji basketball camp, an initiative of the Olumide Oyedeji Foundation rounded off on Friday at the indoor sports hall of the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos.
In attendance were over a hundred and fifty young boys and girls from different parts of the country and about seventeen coaches both male and female, to tutor and train the youngsters on how to become top basketballers.
At the 5 day camping experience were kids of different age grades: under 9s, age group 10-12, junior level and the senior category who all had coaches assigned to them to put them through the rudiments of the game. They had training sessions where they were taught about defending, practised free throws, played games to test their abilities against each other amongst other things.
‘The Olumide Oyedeji basketball ball hopes to empower the youth and develop them basketball wise and make them believe in themselves mentally, emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, help them learn motor skills and develop them in all aspects of life,’ Olumide Oyedeji – CEO and President of the Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation.
‘For the last 18 years we’ve had more than 45,000 youths who have passed through this academy and are doing well all over the world. We’ve had at least 100 of our kids play for the senior and junior national team, we have 300 currently in the United States of America, 60 professionals playing outside the country. Some of our basketball camp products include: Kaffy (the Guinness book of record holder), Daniel Ochefu and Nkechi Akachili who was a member of the victorious D’Tigress team at the just concluded women’s Afrobasket, he continued.
Olumide thanked Honeywell Noodles who fed the children during the camping and commended their efforts for putting smiles on the children’s faces. He said ‘in the long run the aim of the foundation is to ensure these kids do well for themselves, their families, the country and give back to other youths.’
Pictures from the 2017 edition of the Olumide Oyedeji basketball camp.