News

– NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, Sacramento Kings Player Seth Curry and New York Knicks’ Robin Lopez AttendThe National Finals at Jaypee Greens Sports Complex –

– Over 2200 Schools across 14Cities in India Participated in the Program –

Great Learning experience for the Kids at Noida

Kerala Bagged the Best Team award in shooting Competition

Most Valuable award for Sreekala R, Sejin Mathew and Nikhil Thomas

In India when the factions are fighting for each other It was a great experience 128Childrens across the country selected from 2200 schools below 16 &14 years got their rare opportunity  to train Under Indias Best basketball Players along with the International coaches from NBA adding and  to Inspire them was the  presence of  National Basketball Association (NBA) players — Robin Lopez of New York Knicks and Seth Curry of Sacramento Kings then what else  a players in India can dream here  at the Jaypeegreens In greater Noida.

Performance of Kerala in the camp was also remarkable as they grabbed the Best shooting team award apart from that Three bagged the Most Valuable Player award Sejin Mathew from Kurainoor Sports Hostel,thuirvalla, Sreekal R from St Gorettis Thiruvanthauram and Nikhil Thoas from Shanthaljyothi Muttam.

Then to the much delight of Participant Seth and Robin showed some of their skills and techniques and also interacted with the young kids. The NBA players also worked with them  and talked to them about their journey in NBA and answered to kid’s queries. Earlier, NBA legends Bruce Bowen and Muggsy Bogues, WNBA All-Stars Tamika Catchings and Swin Cash, and Sim Bhullar, the first player of Indian descent to play in the NBA, have all travelled to India to support and promote the game in the country.

“It’s great to be here (in India), I am really enjoying my time here and I am just amazed to see the number of kids here who have so much love for the game. It’s great to be among them. I am sure some of these kids will play in the NBA soon. India has a lot of potential and seeing the way these lads have played today, my belief in them has only increased.” Sacramento player Seth Curry said on the sidelines of the event.

The Programme was part of ,The Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA Elite National Camp. The camp features the top 12 youth from each state/city in which the program took place, including Punjab, Kerala, Kolkata, Chennai, NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Mumbai.

This grass root programme had reached more than 1.5m school children and over 2,200 schools pan India. The program consists of a Train the Trainer program for local coaches, in school basketball sessions for children in grades 3-10, elite training camps, as well as Hot Shot, 3-on-3 competitions.

12 kids and 4 coaches from Kerala also got the rare chance to be part of this  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. And also lucky was that  4 from Kerala werere selected from the 128 and got the rare opportunity to train under Seth and robin Sejin Mathew who a sports division Kurianoor  who hails from Thiruvalla sreekala R ,St Goerttis School Thiruvanthapuram and Ann maria Zacharia  from Mount Carmel Kottayam  and Nikhil from Shanthal Jyothi School from Muttam.

ABOUT THE CAMP

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 28th April  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 onward, all the teams were on the Court from 8 am and to 10.30 am. City-wise, teams were put up in 11 stations of 10 minutes each trained by India’s Best Players Ram Kumar, Vishesh Brighwancy ,Mohit Bahndary , Trideep Rai , Paramdeep Singh , Aparna Ghosh, Shiba Maggon, Divya Singh along with International Coaches from NBA Craig Brown from USA ,Natalia from from Portugal,Inderbil Twice MVP at Canadian Professional College league controlled by Vice president of NBA Asia & Director  Basketball Operations of India, Carlos Barroca. James Mathew and his Team from Kerala were Instrumental on Looking after the Fitness Stations, also includes  games of 16 minutes each. What is special about this game was that, only man-to-man defence was permitted, and that too without the full court pressing. Followed by  7 pm to 8 pm 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.

ABOUT JR NBA PROGRAMME 2015 KERALA

In 2015, the NBA joined hands with the Reliance Foundation to launch the Reliance Foundation Jr NBA programmes in various Indian cities. Over the last three years, the programme reached more than 1.5 million youths in 2,200 schools in 14 cities across the country. In Kerala last year 200 schools participated in the 3-month camp held in Kochi, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Alapuzha ,Thruvanthapuaram,Kozhikode and Thrissur guided by the international coaches who have supported  program implementation at each school in Kerala where, Joa Rocha from Portugal and Jade from USA  , the local coaches under  Shibu Hormis were Raphel,Prem, Jithin, Augustine Antony ,Harikrishnan, Soorya  and  Disil Davis 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 Training programme was also conducted in Three Centers in Kristhujayanthi School Kakkanad,Girideepam Betanny in Kottayam and rajeev gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi.apart from Weekend festivals for under 10 years at SN Public School Poothotta, YMCA Alapuzha, and Little Flower HSS Koratty. 

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. Swimming Pool
11. Meals

THOSE ATENDED FROM KERALA AT THE PROGRAMME

K O Oommen as Director Field Operations
PremKumar, Harikrishnan and Soumya R worked as Caoches/ Asst coaches

UNDER 13 GIRLS

Ann Mary Zacharia – Mount Carmel School
Rebecca Martin – Bhavans Elamankara
Ameesha Jose – St Johns Anchal

UNDER 13 BOYS

Aaron V Blessen – St Ephremes Mannanam
Nikhil Thomas – Shanthaljyothi Muttam
Calvin Louiz – Don Bosco Vaduthala

UNDER 16 GIRLS

Srekala R – St Goerotty Schhol ,Thiruvanthapuram
Aparna Sadasivan – Little Flower HSS Koratty
Olivia T Shibu- Shanthaljyothi Muttam

UNDER 16 BOYS

Sejin Mathew – MTHS Sports Hostel Kurainoor
Gokul Babu – Little Flower HSS Koratty
Antony Varghese – Little Flower HSS koratty