Ganiyu Yahaya’s family lives in a Nigerian village that makes it difficult to chase basketball dreams. The nearest court is more than an hour’s drive away.
Transportation is expensive and money is tight, so for Yahaya a trip to the court is a kind of pilgrimage. When school is not in session, the 17-year-old and others play basketball all day and sleep on the court’s edges at night, sometimes for several days in a row. It is not ideal, but it is the only option, and potentially the only way to a better life.
Set against that backdrop, the determination Yahaya and five other Nigerian teenagers showed during their long, sometimes harrowing journey to the AAU Super Showcase in Louisville this week is not surprising.
One plane caught fire and others were missed. There were anxious rides through dangerous areas of northern Nigeria and there was a late-night and last-gasp attempt to find a bus from Washington, D.C., to Kentucky. The players essentially missed the tournament, playing only in some scrimmages that had been cobbled together for their benefit, but their spirits were not dampened.
They were just thrilled to be here, thrilled to see so many college basketball coaches, thrilled to consider new opportunities.
“I’ve never seen something like this,” Yahaya said, scanning the 18 glossy hardwood courts in the Kentucky Expo Center. “It is amazing.”
BASKETBALL MINISTRY
Ron Crawford is the founder of the prestigious Little Rock-based AAU program, the Arkansas Wings, and a few years ago he began working with Moses Kingsley, a Nigerian-born player who is now a sophomore at the University of Arkansas. Through Kingsley, Crawford befriended Emmanuel Odah, a basketball development coach in Nigeria.
That pipeline led three Nigerian players to enroll at Southwest Christian Academy in Little Rock, where Crawford is a basketball director. The players were matched up with host families, and Crawford’s non-profit Arkansas Amateur Basketball Foundation helped cover most travel expenses.
“Something we lack in Africa is fundamentals,” said Eric Moses, who just completed his first year at Southwest Christian. “We start playing at 13 or 14, and we run around but do not really know plays or how to play this game. Now we are learning.”
In June, Crawford and Odah arranged a basketball camp in Nigeria. Crawford, who is also national treasurer of the AAU, wanted to bring a group to AAU Nationals as a ministry trip. Six Nigerian players would join four others who had already moved to the U.S. for high school. They would be Team Abuja, named after their country’s capital city. But planning was the easy part.
Courtesy: Courier Journal
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