We would like to thank Africa Impact, an international organization The Coach in Zambia Foundation recently partnered up with for the volunteers they have provided us with this week,they have been helping us with coaching the kids and teaching them basic fundamental basketball skills like cone dribbling drills,cross over drills and basic shooting form.The more volunteers we have focusing on the weaknesses of specific kids, the easier it is for them to grasp the drills and improve significantly , it all starts with the basics.
It was pretty impressive to see how fast the kids were grasping the concepts.We would like to invite anyone willing to volunteer for a good cause. Thank you Brandon King and Nienke Freige.
Thank you very much for reading, and please comment and share, God bless.
I have many faults, work ethic has never been one of them. Every job I have ever had, I started low and worked my way to the top in a short period of time. Today’s post reflects that. I have recently been appointed an Assistant Coach on the Zambian Men’s National Basketball Team. A goal of mine since I started coaching basketball in Zambia almost 5 years ago is finally achieved and I will not disappoint. Sports have always been my passion. Basketball perhaps the most prevalent.
While this is a great opportunity for me, it is a greater opportunity for the national team players, many of whom, have never had this type of international exposure. We have been invited to the Indigenous World Basketball Challenge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in August of this year. The Tournament will field teams from all over the world. National Teams and Club Teams from top leagues filled with former, current and future professional players, even NBA players will compete alongside the Zambian National Team. These games will be broadcasted live online and will give the Zambian players a platform to audition for coaches from around the world. It would be a disappointment if at least one of our players doesn’t get a scholarship offer or a job offer playing for an international club team.
The biggest hindrance to the trip is of course funding. Basketball is not on the top of the government’s list as you would expect in developing country. With that said I have been put in charge of the fundraising for the trip through the Coach in Zambia Foundation. I plan on starting a crowdfunding campaign, which I would love any feedback on how to do from any of my readers that might be willing to assist. I figure through this, I can target basketball enthusiasts in volumes who might be willing to help a young player get a chance at fulfilling their dream. the budget for the trip is USD $ 71,900, it includes the airfare, national team uniforms, sneakers, etc, medical insurance, a training camp, and expenses/per diems for the players and coaches while abroad. More than half the budget is the airfare.
I also am reaching out to local corporations here in Zambia and my resolution to make this trip happen is unscathable. Through every avenue possible, these players will get this opportunity!
Below is pictures of the national team kits that I designed and hope to get for the team. also click on the link to see my official appointment letter from the Zambian Basketball Association President, Shawi Fawaz.
As always thank you for reading, sharing, and commenting and please continue!
I finally got a hold of this article from a time when I brought the Hillcrest Secondary School Basketball team to Global Samaritans Orphanage where we conducted a clinic with the orphans there. This does great work and kids from this orphanage get sponsored to different secondary schools throughout the Southern Province and often some of the best students and basketball players come out of the same Global Samaritans Orphanage.
Please see below link called “Sept Commuter Mag”. Page 11 has a picture of the Hillcrest Spartans, Global Samaritan Orphange children and myself. The Tv stations also covered the event and i’m still trying to get the footage. As always thank you for reading, please comment, share and like!
Lots to write about, I’ll try to make it short. Firstly, An article in the Zambia Daily Mail one the top National Newspapers in Zambia with excerpts from this blog. See below picture. It is actually the 3rd article in the last 2 or 3 years. I’m trying to get a hold of the previous two still.
Ok next. Round one of the Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula Memorial Tournament at the District Level. I had four teams play games on Saturday, Senior Girls, Senior Boys, Junior Girls and Junior Boys.
Hillcrest Senior Girls team
Firstly, I have coached Hillcrest girls for a few years and mostly they haven’t shown dedication in practice etc and it showed during the games. That was until this year. The attendance for the girls at practice has been much better. The first half of the first game, the girls looked there standard selves, undisciplined defense, turnovers, etc. During halftime I spoke to them about how simple it would be to fix the scoreboard and tip in to our favor. I talked about playing a disciplined zone defense, and giving hard accurate passes. Does seem like much, but wow the second half was different game. They came out and played amazing. We still lost the game but I was very proud.
The next game they played, they played disciplined the whole game. It was so amazing to see. They destroyed the other team with solid play, teamwork and discipline. It was the most organized girls game I have seen in 4 years. I couldn’t hold back how proud I was. If they has played that way the entire first game, there is no doubt that they would have one and moved on to the next round. The best part is, only one of the girls is a 12th grader. Most are 9th and 10th graders. Hillcrest girls should be a force to be reckoned with for years to come!
Hillcrest Spartans Senior Boys team
The Boys team won the tournament. The first two games though, we were lucky to win, we did not play well to say the least. Luckily in third game the boys came to life and played with determination and authority and held the opposition to only 7 pts while scoring 19(7min halfs running time) The way they played the last game is how we are capable of playing and we will need to continue with that play into the next round. This tournament is now in the quarterfinal stage and I’m confident we are the best team in the Southern Province, The challenge lies in playing consistent at a high level. The boys are practicing hard and I will update on the progress!
junior team
Boys junior team played two games, and won them both with ease. These kids are 13 yrs old and younger. I was very impressed with their play! And I connect their play directly with their high attendance at practice. It was great to see. and encouraging for the future of the program. One of the games they won 17-0!
Finally the junior girls were playing their first game and it was 0-0 at halftime when it started raining heavily and the game was called for rain. They were playing very well especially defensively when the game was stopped.
The main issues I saw was the lack of sneakers, Even the sneakers worn were not athletic sneakers, and not to mention during substitutions the person coming out of the games would take off their sneakers to give them to the person coming in. This was for all the teams across the board. There are some amazing people who have sent sneakers already and more who have done sneaker drives that are sending and we are forever grateful. More work needs to be done though. Also a simple thing like a portable digital scoreboard would do wonders for the standards of the game. Until then though we will make the best with what he have. Thank you for reading. Please share, like, comment and if you would like to contact me robert@coachinzambia.com
One Day while working at Chrismar Hotel, I had a meeting with the Marketing Manager Ken from the Daily Mail newspaper. We got to talking about life in general and I spoke at length about my work at Hillcrest with the kids there. Little did I know, he was friends with the VP of the Zambia Basketball Association(ZBA) and told him about me. A few days later I received a call from the VP and he asked me to become the Chairman of the ZBA Southern Province and to start and manage a league here. A few days later the General Secretary sent me my appointment letter and so it began..
First thing I did was contact Nchimunya Mwaanga. Nchimunya had been a staple of basketball in Livingstone for some years and I knew he knew the right people to talk to. I asked him to spread the word about a try out for a new team that was forming. He also put me in contact with other teams in Choma, Monze, and other towns that had somewhat organized teams and slowly but surely we had meetings.
Livingstone a few years back had a team called the hookers(don’t ask me where that name came from, I’m as baffled as you are) so some of the former players mixed with other basketball players came and tried out for the team. after about two weeks of tryouts. I picked my team. We then named captains, Nchimunya was named as one and Francis Chibulu was named as the other. I wanted the team to take on my personality, in every sense. Tough play, high energy, no nonsense, never give up attitude etc, so we picked Warriors as a name, but I wanted to find a word that meant warrior in the local language which we could not find so decided to use the word Warriors and name it Mukuni Warriors, after the local Chief Mukuni and Mukuni Village.
Mukuni Warriors were born. more on the Warriors in future blogs.
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This blog will likely jump around from idea to idea, but overall it will shed some light on my project here, What I am doing, What I am trying to accomplish, and what my hopes for the project are.
“In Zambia, outside of school, hobbies are limited. Even football, Zambia’s biggest sport lacks organization in the form of youth league’s etc due to funding and equipment. Basketball is Zambia’s fasting growing sport but is difficult to develop talent with many kids without having sneakers to play with, courts in dilapidated conditions, basketballs being warn out fast due to the same conditions and lack of coordination. For these reasons, many youths and a high percentage of youths turn to alcohol at a young age. And the talent that is developed usually goes unnoticed by the outside world.
The kids whose talent does get developed is often wasted because of lack of exposure to the International community. The Zambian National teams rarely compete in tournaments due to lack of funding. Youths who are capable both academically and athletically to receive scholarships from international universities often end up doing lowly jobs because they cannot afford a college education.
The Coach in Zambia Foundation aims to address many of those issues. Organizing youth leagues, supplying youths with equipment, sneakers, balls, jerseys, etc for all sports. Sponsoring international tournaments financially and with organizational guidance locally and sponsoring the national teams to attend international tournaments. Sponsoring talented youths to attend international camps. To use sports as a platform for education, to capture the youths attention with sports and take that attention to educate them on social issues such as HIV/Aids, environmental issues, gender based violence, etc. While the main focus of The Coach in Zambia Foundation will be basketball, other experts will be brought in to consult and assist youths of other sports disciplines as well.
Though this initiative, over a 5-10 year period we aim to see a quantifiable positive change in the number of scholarshipped student athletes at university level, professional athletes from Zambia, a healthier generation of Zambians, and raise international awareness of the plight of Zambians and Africans as whole.”
When I was 14 or 15 I attended a 1 week basketball camp at Holy Cross College/University. It really opened my eyes to the competition level just in my area nevermind nationally and sent me on a mission to get better. I want the youths here to see how much hard work is needed to get to the next level. To develop that work ethic and utilize that work ethic in all aspects of their lives.
Basketball as a healthy hobby or choice alternative to something negative, to improve physical fitness, relieve stress, camaraderie, teamwork, communication, being a gracious winner and not a sore loser, displaying class, competitive drive, sportsmanship, respect, all things kids will learn. Sports especially team sports are character building.
All mentioned above are things I am already doing on some level. Ideally, This project will be formalized as a 501/c/3 in the US and an NGO here in Zambia within the next few months. At that point I hope to be doing this full-time to expand the project and help more kids. I will hire fulltime coaches/mentors and assign them to schools and other programs, I have been receiving donations of sneakers and other sporting equipment, if I can maintain a steady stream of such items. I will use these items as incentives to the kids to attend training sessions etc. i.e if a kid attends minimum 70% of training sessions and gets a minimum (x-havent decided threshold) scores on their exams, they will get a pair of sneakers every 6 months. These and many more ideas can be put into place relatively easily to enhance lives and give more opportunities to more youths!
That’s it for today. Thank you for reading! Please comment, like and more importantly share. if you are interested in helping or want to find out how you can help. please email me at robert@coachinzambia.com
While many of you may not know, I am writing my blogs as Testimonials as of late. since my wife passed away, I have had difficulty in focusing and while I have plenty to say, writers block, over tiredness from lack of sleep, etc have hindered progress in that area. So I reached out to former players and asked them to write about their basketball experience with me. Despite what people might think, I didn’t expect so many amazing words, but reading them has touched me, motivated me, and inspired me more. I have learned just as much if not more from these kids than I have taught them.
Temwani is another student who graduated from Hillcrest in 2015. Temwani’s story is one of heart, dedication, and intelligence. He started coming to practice in 10th grade, I had no idea how young he was, he was only 14, and he graduated highschool at age 16. Temwani worked as hard as anyone and 10th and 11th grade he unfortunately had not seen any playing time in a game yet. His skill level just wasn’t there yet. Temwani then in 12th grade came out of shell and became a starter. He developed his shot, jumping ability, finsihing around the rum, etc. I often used Temwani as an example to the younger kids when they got frustrated at practice and so on, of how work pays off.
There was a time I administered a practice SAT test to about 10 of the players, and Temwani finished with the highest score of them all. When he finished his exams, his grade 12 results were so good, he was offered a scholarship to study in Russia, where he is currently studying General Medicine(he always told me he wanted to be a brain surgeon). I spoke with him the other day and he told me he isn’t playing yet, because where he is there aren’t any courts, but next term he will be at a different school in Moscow, where their are plenty of basketball courts. I have always been proud of this boy(man now) and his accomplishments, dedication, desire, intelligence and overall friendly down to earth demeanor. His words below touched me deeply. Thank you Temwani, it was a pleasure coaching you and I hope to coach you again in the future.
Please Read Temwani’s testimonial below:
“The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I’ve always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It’s been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It’s a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game.”…………….. these are words often spoken by Michael Jordan a legend among many.
I think basketball players everywhere great or small can agree with me that in as much as we love the game ,getting to where we are now has not been an easy road to travel. Along these roads we have played with and against a variety of players and been exposed to numerous dogmas and i would love nothing more than to share my experiences.
I started playing basketball when i was only 13 and even then i barely knew anything about the sport. I like most people wished to be better player but at the time i didn’t see that possible mainly because i lacked facilities and motivation to play the game. When i was 14 in my 10th grade i got to meet someone who would change not only how i played and viewed basketball but also change me as a person. This man was Robert McCarron. In the beginning ,he brought a completely different way of playing the game as to what i was accustomed to, and it was hard to adapt,i mean we all know change is hard and one of the biggest fears that we as humans have. He instilled a spirit of hard work in us that applied not only on the court but also in our everyday lives, the more i trained and spent time with him the better of a person i became and it reflected in my grades as well. This contradicts what most people assume , “whi sport makes perform bad in academics.” I can speak from personal experience that this has never been the case.we all have many excuses that we give to give up on the theses we love such as time ,money or what people will say but this was never a problem with our high school. We loved the game and Robert loved to teach it and this alone got us to where we wanted to be . Though right now i not with him i know that his love of the game is keeping his drive fueled. He is more than just a coach to me, he has been a friend and a father figure to many of us.
David was my “enforcer” on my first Hillcrest team. At the time he wasn’t spectacular at any one aspect of basketball, but he had the heart of lion and played with no fear. If a player was playing tough inside and out rebounding us, I could tell David to muscle him and keep him out of the paint and would do it fearlessly. I remember the first tournament we won. Most of the kids on the team hadn’t played in an actual organized game up to that point. Our star player at the time, Eric, suffered severe cramps in the finals. He was the only real guard we had on the team and had to sit out the game. That was the first time I saw David take over a game and play like a leader. He rebounded, brought the ball up and played tough defense, while it was a team effort, David stood out in that game and we won.
After he graduated, he came back to Hillcrest for a term to study what they call here A levels. I wasn’t familiar with A levels, but learned they are like an extra preparatory level between High school and university. While he was there, he joined the Mukuni Warriors, and also helped me coach the girls team and junior team at Hillcrest. He did a great job and I am proud of how he handled coaching the kids.
I asked him to write a little bit about his experience and he wrote this:
“I OWE YOU COACH ROBERT
My names are David Mapenzi Simbuliani aged 19 years. I am a Guard/Small forward for the Copperbelt University Comets Basketball Team, and in the school of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Copperbelt University.
I started playing basketball in the year 2012 at Hillcrest National Technical High School, Southern province. Late that year I realized what would make me happy in a long time, if not my entire life. I met Coach Robert McCarron who sacrificed to be the Coach of The Hillcrest Spartans but by then I was a part time basketball student because I was too possessed with soccer and was one of the dependable figures in the school team.
Coach Robert made a turnaround about everything in just but a few months. There is an instance I live not to forget when He possessed a question for most of the players, “What you up for? Basketball or Soccer? I dumped soccer that instant and was up for basketball. And that was the beginning of Coach Roberts reign.
Personally, I would atomize Roberts way of coaching into 3 categories 1. Dedication 2. Aggression 3. Discipline. Through these ways, I feel He built the foundation of Spartan basketball.
Except from my family and a few individuals, Coach Robert has made me a person I am today. I have learnt that in life nothing comes on a silver platter but you rather have to work for everything you need and always in a smart way. He made me realize that everything I do in life I have to follow the details (basics) before I even got it from the scientific perspective. If I am to write each and everything Coach Robert has had to offer, then that book would be fit for the library.
For now I say THANK YOU and you the best Coach I have ever had. I am yet to learn a lot from you. THANK YOU once more.
DAVID MAPENZI SIMBULIANI”
David, you are great guy and a hard worker. Keep being you and you will accomplish great things. It was a pleasure coaching and hope to coach you again in the future.
David is pictured here circled in red. On this day, My brothers boss donated Boston tshirts to the kids, and sent them with my Mom and my aunt when they came to visit.
It has been a long time since I blogged, a lot has happened. . . most notably, the loss of my wife, the mother of my kids, my best friend, confidant and an overall amazing person Maria Nyendwa. For some months now, I have been focused on sadness, anger, confusion, grief, loneliness, among other things and quite frankly I’m still there.
While I’m going through this however, good things have been happening. Museta Daka, A former player of mine from Hillcrest Secondary School, whom I started coaching while he was in 10th grade, and was just a boy, am proud to say is a hard working, intelligent ambitious young man, currently studying at university and playing basketball in China. He wrote a Testimonial about his experience and it made me incredibly proud to say I have positively influenced this young man’s life. His testimonial is below:
”
BALL IS LIFE
museta daka mbulwe
Basketball is not only a sport but a medium in which one can enhance mental and intellectual abilities. Basketball is and has been my comfort zone. Playing basketball requires determination,discipline,mental fitness,physical fitness and a fighting spirit if one possesses all this learning and playing is worth the intense training because at the end of it all you will be enriched with all that you already possess, the best part of it all is even if you did not have the few mentioned abilities or requirements the training builds you in all ways you would imagine.
My own experience as a basketballer one who has trained and still undergoing training and skill improvement. To me basketball is like education with all that i have learnt on the court i have learnt to handle my life academically,socially,physically and the last but very important emotionally due to having a team to rely on for strength support . As i played basketball at high school level at hillcrest with one of the best coaches in zambia if not the best MR Robert McCarron. I personally owe him huge gratitude for being not only a coach but a mentor and father figure and a role model. He put in his effort to coach high school kids and brought out the best in us. As captain at high school level i looked up to him for not only advise on basketball but life as a whole so to say we all grew in many ways with his coaching and his presence in our lives has left a significant mark which we proudly carry with honor and try our best to share with others who look up to us. When he first came to coach us i still recall him making us run like never before we truly did not like it but after a few more days and training we got the whole concept of what he expected from us and we pushed hard living by his words on the court and i quote Till The Last Blood and i personally have from then own lived by these words. I played basketball at club level mainly because of his training coaching and friendship that he showed all of us playing for his club Mukuni Warriors was an amazing experience and playing with my former high school teammates and elder players who we also looked up to. As we grew in our skill our understanding of life as well mainly because we had a great coach and team we still regard to as family.
My high school memories of basketball still are the best memories training on our court we proudly cleaned and if not we all knew he would give some punishment which kept us in line and in our right mind building us slowly but sure for the world we would face own our own and I was prepared after my time with my coach and role model. The impact of his coaching and supervision has greatly helped me as a whole and i still look back when i find myself in a situation that requires me to make decisions. Personally my experience as a basketball player with Robert McCarron as my coach and mentor has been a life changer and eye opener as he always advised me to push as hard as i did on the court while training in each and every aspect of my life and i have accomplished alot since then. My dream of studying abroad has been accomplished greatly due to his advise and mentorship that i took seriously and i owe him a great deal. After completing my grade twelve at hillcrest and getting back home to Ndola with a great deal of skill set to go with my basketball career i played with the Ndola nets who commended me for my good sportsmanship and ability to play the best in any situation whether on defense or offense. I have reach heights i never saw myself reaching before i met my former coach Mr Robert McCarron . I am studying in china and playing for a club where my training has been a great help as i coordinate some training drills that i have learnt from the best in my time with him as coach. My family has always been supporting me with everything and now with basketball and the money i get from playing at my Chinese club i am helping pay my fees when i can to help easy the load on my family. I would never be thankful enough to Mr Robert McCarron as a coach mentor and friend i personally owe him a great deal to what i have accomplished so far and yet to accomplish by taking his teaching,advise and coaching with me everywhere i go and in everything i do.
Basketball should not only be consider as a sport but a positive life influence and builder with discipline. The game has brought out the best in me and i can only wish and aim to influence others younger than I to take it including those above me. Basketball and life are a whole inclusive of other sport disciplines.”
Thank you Museta, Am proud of you and will always be here for you!
Hillcrest Spartans, after winning the Southern Province Championship(equivalent to a state championship in the US) Museta Daka is circled in the red.
So here I was 3 times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays coaching the boys at Hilcrest, After practice I used to make them run suicides and other drills til they were soo tired(I later came to find out at first they hated me for that). I taught them how to box out, taught them left hand lay-ups, basic shot form, basic defense and offense a few offensive sets and a few defensive sets, I explained why we would use the offensive sets(example overload versus a zone defense, pic and rolls versus a man to man) The boys showed immense dedication. One day I asked them to choose a captain and they picked a 12th grader named Nyemba, I still keep in touch with him, great kid!
Eric, who I mentioned in a previous post and will mention more and more as I am trying to get him a scholarship to play in the US(yes he is that talented, just needs a bit of maturity) due to his national team experience, I would have him work with the guards for me as I worked with the bigs. Now you need to understand how difficult this was. We had one basketball, about 15 kids, the basketball was worn down beyond belief, the court had enormous potholes and some of the kids played in flip flops(called slippers here). It was a miracle we didn’t have any serious injuries, I thank God everyday for that. Despite all those obstacles, the kids worked extremely hard, were willing to learn and didn’t complain. They inspired me.
I always infused life lessons into the drills I did, I would quote movies from time to time as I’m just not that creative. One of my favorite pep talks from a sports movie was from I think it was “varisty blues” about being perfect. I emphasized that being perfect does not mean not making mistakes, but that being perfect meant working as hard as you can, that at the end of the day looking in the mirror and saying “I did everything I could today with the best possible effort”. I used that when guys were not running as hard as they could, I used that referring to school, relationships, and everything in their lives. I held them responsible for being on time, to sweep the court before practice, I made them work harder than I’m sure they imagined they would have to. At first I know they did not see the benefit of it, but over time and I’m sure they will agree(they will be giving me little essays about their experience I hope to post) It pushed them to higher heights than they thought imaginable.
There were other life lessons I tried to teach, there was one with David. Now David graduated but still plays for my Warriors team and just got accepted to Copperbelt University(so proud of him) was a hustle player, he didn’t have finesse, wasn’t super skilled at any one particular thing, but worked harder on the court than the rest of the team and he had no fear. The truth is, at first he was a bully. There was an incident one time where he purposely elbowed a kid on our team in the face. I knew the other kids on the team didn’t like the other kid, but that didn’t justify what David did. My philosophy was, if someone shows up and puts 100% effort in every practice then he has every right to be on the team. I spoke to David about it and basically told him this, you don’t have to like everyone on your team, everyone in classroom, family, someday job, but what you do need to do is respect them. We had a long talk, he apologized to me and as far as I know apologized to him too. Now over the next few months, I saw a huge change in David that impressed me. Instead of bullying the younger guys, he was working with them, teaching them and taking them under his wing. At the time I wasn’t a parent as I am now, but seeing this change made me feel like a proud parent, it was probably the first time in my left I knew that I made a positive change in someone else’s life. David is still a great guy and I’m proud of all he has accomplished and will accomplish!
Well that’s it for now, stay tuned for more of my basketball journey in Zambia and please if you feel generous, donate, basketballs, sneakers, shorts, jerseys(all can be used or new) absolutely everything and anything. I’m getting closer everyday to having this project registered as a 501/c/3 so you can get tax deductions for the same. In the meantime, please email me at robert@redchemistry.com to contact me for any questions, donations or even advice. Thank you for reading and God Bless!
From top left, Nathan, TK, Me, Emmy, Museta, Jesse Bottom from left, Eric, Temwani, Muse, Sam, Frazier and Nyemba(captain) Look at the condition of the ball we are using, if you can look at the shoes they are wearing, and i will give this photo more context in a future post, Thank you Jack McManemim for the photo
coachinzambia 