Netball
Netball gospel according to CSED is preached in Taraba State
The attempt to make netball popular in Nigerian has seen the crusaders, Community Sport and Educational Development (CSED) taking the sport to Jalingo in Taraba State.
At the weekend, the indoor sports hall of the Jolly Nyame Stadium Jalingo in taraba State was a beehive of activity, as the “PROJECT 2027” netball train made an imposing stop.
The event which was jointly organized with theTaraba Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Taraba State Ministry of Education, was powered by CSED.
The CSED Initiative is a leading sport for change NGO in Nigeria.
“PROJECT 2027” is a grassroots netball development programme that aims at promoting the right of Nigerian girls to play the game of netball in Nigeria.
Netball could have died “unnaturally in Nigeria,” if not for the small efforts of CSED Initiative and the Naija Netball Stakeholders who have strongly resisted the non-challant attitude of the NOC and some top civil servants in the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports in developing netball in Nigeria.
“PROJECT 2027” ultimate goal is to bring the game of netball to the attention of one million Nigerian school girls before the end of 2027, by training 1,200 Physical Education teachers in schools all over Nigeria.
These trained teachers will be expected to impart the knowledge gained from attending the free netball training into their students.
The two-day basic netball training for P.E. Teachers in Taraba State led to the certification of 34 (thirty-four) new netball coaches. The training was conducted by two Netball Africa certified instructors, Dr Grace Ataha and Godwin Edema Fuludu.
The two instructors made use of the training pack that was developed by the current World Netball Ambassador, Mary Waya, who is the former coach of Tanzania and Malawi national netball teams.
They stressed the importance of the P.E. teachers ensuring they promote the safety and welfare of their students by ensuring that they implement the safeguarding advice that they have received during the netball training.
Furthermore, the teachers will be provided with access to develop themselves by doing online safeguarding training and other online sports for change training that would be made available to them in future.
As part of the netball training curriculum, the new coaches were trained in the theory and practical aspects of netball, which is the only sport in the world that is specifically designed for girls and women.
The attendees at this free training course were intrigued by the unique rules of the game of netball.
These rules require players to stay in specific parts of the netball court that is divided into three parts. The position of a player in this team sport (netball) determines the area of the court that they can operate in.
Netball has seven different positions and the players have to pass and move the ball from one end of the court to the other end, and they can only score a point when their goal scorer (GS) successfully shoots the ball into their opponent rim that has an internal diameter of 38cm or 380mm.
The two netball rims are placed on vertical poles that is 10 feet tall (for adult players). However, the poles could be adjusted to 9 feet for U-12 players and 8 feet for U-9 players.
Netball is played in four intervals of 15 minutes each. The Netball World Cup will be held from 28th July to 6th August 2023 in Cape Town (South Africa).
During his welcome address to the participants at the opening ceremony of the training event, the Director of Sports, George Shitta urged the participants to carefully listen to the teachings of the instructors, who have held similar basic netball training events in five other states (Edo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Enugu and Bayelsa) in Nigeria.
He thanked CSED for coming to Taraba State again, just after less than a month of holding a grassroots badminton training event in Taraba State. Given the important role sports play in unifying Nigerians, Shitta urged private organizations and individuals to complement government efforts by investing more in grassroots sports development with a view of engaging the youths in pro-social activities that would be beneficial to them and the society in future.
He stated that the sport council will consolidate on the gains of the training through proper monitoring in order to ensure the effective utilization of the free starter packs (netball balls, finger-held whistles, rims/nets and two sets of netball training bibs) that were distributed to the P.E. teachers of the schools and staff of the Sport Council.
A member of staff of the Taraba State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Abba Joseph Giwa who is a nurse, spoke to the participants about sport injuries and how athletes could avoid and manage these types of injuries in future.
Giwa was also on standby to provide basic first aid treatment to the participants that sustained any minor sprain during the fun filled practical aspect of the training.
Some of the participants commended the event organizers and assured that the knowledge gained will be instilled into their students.
One of the P.E. teachers, Aleng Sam travelled by road from the Mambilla Plateau area to Jalingo, a journey of more than seven hours in order to attend this netball training.
The Mambilla Plateau is the highest plateau in Nigeria, and has an average elevation of 1,600 metres above sea level.
Netball
Refugee Week and International Olympic Day marked in Cdagom 1 Camp
As part of the sports events marking the Refugee Week 2024 and the International Olympic Day, a netball exhibition event drawing participants from three refugee camps in Cross Rivers State of Nigeria took place.
The venue was the netball field of Adagom Camp 1 and participants were from Adagom 1, Adagom 3, and Ukende refugee camps in Ogoja Local Government area of Cross River State. The event was organized by CSED (Community Sport and Educational Development) Initiative with the approval and support of the PM of SEMA, the Adagom 1 SEMA Supervisor, and the leaders of the three refugee camps.
Twenty players from each camp were kitted by Lord’s Taverners and CSED Initiative. Each netballer was provided a sport book (“Kick It”) that was donated by the Uxbridge library of London Borough of Hillingdon (UK).
The netballers from the Ukende camp won the two exhibition games. The highlight of the event was the presentation of a five thousand Naira, educational vouchers to each of the sixty netballers.
It would be recalled that netball was recently introduced to the three Ogoja refugee camps after CSED Initiative “Project 2027” training of P.E. teachers in Cross River state was held in April 2024. The “Project 2027” training event led to the certification of coaches Stephanie Obi, Marceline Ode, and Shantel Eseh, who are Cameroonian citizens.
These three coaches are now charged with the responsibility of providing the girls and ladies in their respective camp with access to learn the basic of netball, identify, and nurture the talents of the budding netballers.
CSED Initiative with the support of Lord’s Taverners, UNHCR, Cross River SEMA, and other relevant partners/stakeholders hope to use access to playing netball to provide psycho-social support and access to educational/life skills training opportunities to the residents of the three camps.
The immediate goal of CSED Initiative is to build a multi-purpose cement playing surface for the use of the netballers in each of the separate camps.
Furthermore, some of these netballers will have access to take part in the “Sporting Coders” programme, which will allow them access to learn how to code, while at the same time playing netball.
The organisers of the event stated that their ultimate goal is to give the Cameroonian refugees a sporting chance to compete with other girls all over the world; in an attempt to feature in the netball event of the 2032 Olympic games in Brisbane.
The Cameroonians will definitely be inspired by the story of Mary Cholhok Nuba, a former South Sudanese refugee, who is now a netball superstar in England.
Netball
Finidi Georges’ foreign assistants have Nigerian roots!
The Nigeria Football Federation president, Ibrahim Gusau has revealed the five tacticians who will assist the new Nigeria manager, Finidi George. Sports Village Square’s investigation reveals that four of the five coaches either have roots or links in Nigeria.
The only exception is Mehmet Ozturk who is from Turkey. He will be the team’s match reader and analyst. The 59 year old have had stints with various European teams.
Daniel Amokachi is well known as a former Super Eagles player. He is joined by Benjamin James, Chima Onyeike and goalkeeper trainer, Olatunji Baruwa.
Benjamin James had previously featured for Shooting Stars of Ibadan and Super Stores of Lagos. He is from Bayelsa State.
He later moved to Italy and Germany. For years, he was with Bundesliga club Hoffenheim. He will be the fitness trainer as he has a diploma in fitness from the sports university and has worked with various top European clubs like VfB Stuttgart, PAOK and Willem II.
Chima Onyeike is a Dutch coach of Nigerian origin.
Netball
Netball global ambassador declares interest in promotion in Nigeria
Current World Netball Ambassador, Mary Waya has restated her commitment to promote the development of netball in Nigeria at the grassroots, schools and community levels, with the ultimate goal of leading to the emergence of netball clubs in future.
She made this known recently during a telephone discussion with a Trustee of CSED Initiative, the sport for change NGO that is currently blazing the trail for the development of netball at the grassroots and school levels in Nigeria.
Waya is the ex-Tanzania, Namibia, and Malawi national netball coach. She is also a former coach of Mavericks Netball Team of England that plays in the Netball Super League.
It would be recalled that in March 2020, Waya facilitated the training and Netball Africa certification of 24 Nigerians, as netball coaches.
At the time Mary Waya visited Nigeria in March 2020, Nigeria had just recorded her first few cases of Covid-19.
She defied Covid-19 in order to lay the foundation for the revival of netball in Nigeria.
At that point in time, netball in Nigeria was not only in a state of coma, it was like a patient in an isolation ward that has been abandoned to die an untimely death.
After the post- Covid-19 restriction was lifted in Nigeria, and normalcy gradually returned to the sport and education sectors, CSED Initiative started its “Project 2027” grassroots netball development programme in July 2022.
The major goals of “Project 2027” are to bring the game of netball to the awareness of one million Nigerian school children, train and equip one thousand two hundred P.E. Teachers in netball, and through the process promote the right to play netball of the Nigerian school girls.
Till date, CSED Initiative through their “Project 2027” programme has trained and equipped more than 350 P.E. Teachers, athletes, and community youths to become netball coaches.
The trained netball coaches have subsequently introduced netball to school students in seven states in Nigeria.
The next state on the “Project 2027” netball tour is going to be Cross River State.
Waya stated that her goal is to see that the foundation she laid in March 2020 is built upon by credible Nigerians who have the game of netball at heart.
She stated that she is willing to visit Nigeria soon in her capacity as a Netball Africa trainer to support the developmental work of CSED Initiative and any other NGO or government agency with passion and technical knowledge and use netball to develop the potentials of the girl child in Nigeria.
Waya mentioned that her future focus in respect of supporting the development of netball in Nigeria is to nurture and develop more Netball Africa certified coaches.
As well as develop the netball umpires and administrators who will take Nigerian netball to the next level.
She stated that she is particularly pleased to know that CSED Initiative has started discussion with the Department of Human Kinetics and Sports Science of UNIBEN and University of Uyo with a view of collaborating with them in respect of introducing a certificate programme in netball, as well as piloting an online sport for change course that would be specifically targeted at female teachers and female athletes. T
The two university departments would also be supported to carry out research on how sport for change practitioners could use netball and other sports to support, safeguard, and empower vulnerable persons (IDPs, wards of the state, and refugees) in Nigeria.
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