Ball'In Schools continues success with well participated third leg in Oman

MUSCAT (Oman) - An important key to developing basketball in a country is to construct a sturdy foundation of love for the game at an early age. It is a concept that has been tested and true, recently emphasized even more with the success of the Ball’In Schools program that were held earlier this year in Bhutan and Laos. The positive feedback has now encouraged Oman to join in a be a part of the program as well.

"After seeing pictures and videos from the previous Ball’In Schools, we knew we wanted to have the program in Oman," said Mr. Fareed Khamis Soniya Al-Zadjali, president of the Oman Basketball Association (OBA). "I really like the idea of the program because all sports start at the school level. If you can instill the sport of basketball in schools, then you can grow the sport for the future and grow the supporters from the community."

With that initiation, the Ball’In Schools program was organized in Muscat from December 16-19 with 1200 students in participation aged from 4-10 years old.

"We are so thankful to the Regional Office in Asia for bringing Ball’In Schools to Oman. We hope to keep this momentum going after the program is finished. This program will help Oman basketball a lot and help develop basketball in the whole country," he added.

The program was started by FIBA Regional Office Asia - National Federations and Sport department to introduce basketball in countries where the development in basketball is challenged by many factors. Whether it is the lack of coaching education among physical education teachers or low presence of basketball in schools, Ball’In Schools targeted to tackle these obstacles with the participation of schools to get the younger generation involved in the sport.

"We are so pleased to be able to be part of the Ball’In Schools program," said Mr. Assad Mubarak Obaid Al Hasni, Secretary General of the OBA. "We really believe in the philosophy of this program in that we believe basketball should be taught in a fun way. We want our youth to learn loving the game of basketball for fun."

The program was conducted with the assistance of 25 ambassadors, including eight of who were females. The participating ambassadors were taught how to make basketball fun and other fundamental aspects of the game.

"We have a lot of work to do in growing basketball in Oman and we believe that this program will give these ambassadors and the OBA the materials to expand basketball especially in the youth. We hope this will encourage our local clubs to focus more on their youth as well," added the secretary general.

"This program has helped me a lot in terms of new ways of coaching," said Shams Al Khonji, one of the ambassadors and a youth coach with her own kids’ academy. "I have participated in a level 1 WABC coaching course with FIBA and this is quite different. It teaches us how to actually attract the youth into the game of basketball as opposed to focus on their skill level."

"Omani Basketball really needed this because, here in Oman, basketball is not the main sport and having this many ambassadors for basketball will really help our goal of spreading the game of basketball within schools and neighbourhoods," she said.

The participants were left in smiles after finishing the program, fulfilled with the joy of learning how to play the game. Basketball might not currently be the biggest sport in the country of Oman, but the beams of happiness from the kids could be a signal of changes up ahead in the future.

"Thank you so much for FIBA for coming and having this fun day for us," Six-year-old Mohammad Abdel Aziz Salem gleefully expressed. "I always see older kids and my older brothers playing basketball and I want to learn this game too. Today, I learned how to play and it is my favourite sport."

"I hope we can play more, and we can have another program like this again."

FIBA