Barbados' Next Generation Academy sees no excuses to dream big in basketball

Basketball in Barbados is not the first choice of kids in the island, but the Next Generation Basketball Academy, along the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) has a mission to change that notion.

Since 2016, and guided by their principle of “Dream Big, No Excuses”, the Academy and its creator, Zahir Motara, have impacted more than 200 girls and boys from 6 to 17 years of age. The program offers clinics, camps, tournament opportunities, and workshops for the technical staff.

“We started this initiative to improve the basketball level in children and youth categories,” said Motara to FIBA.com “We saw that many of our young players practiced other sports since they were six, but they didn’t practice basketball because it's not as popular. Many of us that played in the national team and other levels as adults started to play only when we were 13 or 14. From there we started to grow our pool of players in all categories to continue to promote the sport in Barbados.”

Motara was part of the BABA Council for the past nine years and participated in the Barbados National Team since 1999 to 2011, with appearances at Centrobasket and in CBC championships. He currently coaches the country’s national youth team. These experiences have taken him to understand the issues and obstacles faced by young players in the island and are his motivation to create the program.

“Being a player and a coach at a national level has allowed me to see what is needed to get to that game level. One of the most significant differences among us and nations with bigger basketball (programs) is that they've started to play at an earlier age. We're trying to plant the seed in the 6-13 categories, where many children don’t usually play basketball,” explained Motara.

The Academy recently celebrated an informative session that was free of charge for coaches, teachers and players, and counted on resources such as Vladeta Stojanovic, from Sweden. They worked on modern offense and defense principles, as well as terminology and concepts.

Also, the U-23 Invitational Tournament took place with the participation of 6 teams that fought for the title.

The program started recently an initiative called PBOC Primary Schools Basketball Open Court. Once a month, children between the ages of 6 and 11 that want to go out to play under the supervision of young coaches and officials attend and are divided into teams that play 3x3 in the U-8 and U-11 categories.

“With these (initiatives) we must make sure that younger players are having fun and are enjoying the game so that they fall in love (with the sports) and keep playing and learning as they move on to higher levels,” Motara added.

FIBA