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JR NBA Elite National Camp glittered with expertise and results. 22 kids and 4 coaches from Kerala benefited by this. 22 kids from Kerala got the rare chance to be part of the 1st Reliance Foundation JR NBA Elite National Camp held at 3 Indoor and 3 Outdoor Basketball Courts at Jaypee Gardens India’s best Basketball grounds in Greater Noida.

Twenty players selected from Jr NBA Elite Camp from Kochi and Sreekala and Aparna Sadasivan selected from the BFI List formed Kerala’s contingent. Sreekala has been adjudged the Most Valuable Player, earning her a pair of Nike Baketball shoes , Lakers Bag and a Spalding Basketball

These 22 upcoming players, along with the 4 Selected Coaches, had the rare chance to meet and learn from NBA’s first Indian-origin player Sim Bhullar, who is now in India on a promotional and personal trip. The 7’ 5’’ centre player, made available his expertise and experience to impart the best training to the 140 best performers in the programme, including the 21 selected by BFI, from Punjab, Kolkotta, New Delhi, Chennai, Maharashtra and Kerala.

“I am very excited to travel to India to see at firsthand how basketball’s popularity has grown in India and to meet young basketball players across the country,” said Bhullar. “Hopefully sharing my story will help inspire young Indians to pursue their dreams on and off the court, just as I have” he added.

The camp consisted of skills training, competitions, games, fitness training and team building exercises. It is the goal of the Reliance Foundation Jr NBA programme to promote health, fitness and an active lifestyle through basketball. The teams were received on 3rd May and the players were provided with Socks, Shorts and jr NBA T Shirts and were put in AC dormitories at the Jaypee Gardens Greater Noida. The same day, players and Coaches met in the evening.

On the second day players had to be ready at 6.30 am and after breakfast players U13, and U16 were divided into Four Groups for the sake of draft team games of 16 minutes each and the teams were coached by the asst coaches selected from each city. In the evening, after the draft matches, main teams called by the Coaches and the selected ones were coached by the NBA Selected coaches.

From the third day onwards, all the teams were on the Court from 8 am and to 10.30 am. City-wise, teams were put up in 7 stations. Francisco Garcia (Spain) working on Guarding, strength and conditioning,, Tommy Heffelfinger(USA), working on Fitness, Senior Director Basketball Operations, NBA, Troy Justice, doing Defence Mechanisms, Assistant Vice President (AVP) Basketball Operations of NBA China, Greg Stolt, Training wing layers, and Senior Director, Basketball Operations of India, Carlos Barroca.and India’s best Vishesh Brighwancy, working on Shooting, Scoot Flemming from USA, doing Post Plays, International Players Mohit Bahndary and Sambaji Kadam, doing Ball Handling and the former international players Shiba Maggon, Divya Singh, Sunita Suren, Raspreet Sidhu former youth national coach Paramdeep Singh, sharing their expertise and experience, and a half an hour Practice from 10.30 am to 11 am, followed by the shooting competitions at 11 am, concluding at 12 noon, formed the morning session.

After lunch from 3 to 6, games of 40 minutes each, were held. What is special about this game was that, only man-to-man defence was permitted, and that too without the full court pressing. From 7 pm to 8 pm, they were at the swimming pool. Dinner was served from 8 to 9.30 pm. From then on, were the cultural programmes. The fourth day also continued like this and on the final day after the 4o minutes games , were held Shooting competitions and Hot Shot competitions. Each player’s performance was screened and scrutinised with the help of videos before and after the Camp.

About Jr NBA Programme 2014 Kerala

In 2013, the NBA joined hands with the Reliance Foundation to launch the Reliance Foundation Jr NBA programmes in various Indian cities. Over the last two years, the programme reached more than one million youths in 1,000 schools in eight cities across the country. In Kerala last year 110 schools participated in the 3-month camp held in Kochi, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Alapuzha and Thrissur guided by the international coaches who have supported program implementation at each school in Kerala where, Syndney Hydel from USA, JAJA Richards from USA and Joa Rocha from Portugal , the local coaches under Head coach Shibu Hormis were Raphel,Prem,Robert, Jithin, Akhil,Augustine Antony ,Anil Soman, Disil Davis and Bert Jacob were physical education instructors have conducted weekly basketball-led physical education classes for grades 4-10 in their schools. In addition to the in-school portion, an Elite Tarining programme was also conducted in Three Canters in Kottayam (Assumption College ) YMCA in Alapuzha and Rajagiri Public School in Ernakulum.

The Mission of the Coach

1. To be Positive all the time (On & Off the Court)

2.  To be a Teacher all the time

3.  To Demonstrate Exercises & Drills

4.  To Give Positive Reinforcements to the Players

5.  To Avoid Shouting at Players

6.  To Avoid Shouting at the Referees

7.  To be on Time

8.  To be Always be with your Team

9.  Measurements

10.  Filming

11.  Swimming Pool

12.  Meals

Those atended from Kerala at the Programme

K O Oommen as Director Field Operations
Shibu Hormis as Coach
PremKumar, Desil Francis and Roggy Rose Mathew? worked as Asst coaches

UNDER 13 GIRLS

Lena Sheju – Mount Carmel School
Merin Vargmees – CMI Central School
Sandra Anil – Little Flower Koraty (L. F. C. H. S. S)
Ann Maria – CMI Central School
Godsy T Joseph – St. Joseph Alpy

UNDER 13 BOYS

Noel Binny – St. Paul International
Tom Kurian – Kristhan Jyothi H.S.S. Changanacheng
Rusbeen – Leo XIII H.S.S. Alappuzha
Rifas N – Nava Mirman School
Ajay Andrews – Jyothi Nikethan S.S. School

UNDER 16 GIRLS

Neethu S – St. Joseph Alpy
Reeshma – St thomas Perumanoor
Jaya Laksmmi V. J – St. Joseph Alpy
Aswathy Sureh – Little Flower Koraty (L. F. C. H. S. S)
Srekala R – St Goerotty School,Thiruvanthapuram
Aparna Sadasivan – Little Flower HSS Koratty ?

UNDER 16 BOYS

Midhum Sunesh – Rajasree School
Shloke Somanath – Navanirman School
Nirmal Joseph – Leo XIII H.S.S. Alappuzha
Gringo Mathew Varghese – Little Flower Koraty (L. F. C. H. S. S)
ithin George – Girideepam Bethany H. S. S