BAS inaugurates new basketball court

BAS inaugurates new basketball court The Basketball Artists School (BAS) Foundation in Katutura officially opened their new basketball court on 28 October.

The new court was financed by the German embassy's micro-project fund to the tune of N$380 000. Other sponsors were the former BAS supporting association Isibindi e.V. with its private German donors, as well as the International Basketball Foundation (IBF) in cooperation with the German Basketball Federation (DBB).

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by more than 100 people, among them many young basketball players.

The German ambassador, Christian Schlaga, scored the first basket.

Attending DBB representative Joachim Spägele was impressed with the progress that has been made at BAS.

Andrew Masongo, president of the Namibian Basketball Federation (NBF), and Freddy Mwiya, chief administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), thanked the German embassy and the German donors for their continued support of Namibian youth basketball.

In return, founding trustee of BAS Foundation and DOSB expert Frank Albin thanked the ministry of sport for making available the ground inside the Katutura Sports Complex and promised that BAS would maintain the facilities.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by an official under-18 FIBA 3x3 tournament in cooperation with the NBF.

BAS was founded in February 2010 and currently has 65 boys and girls from 7 to 19 years attending the daily after-school programme, as well as almost 100 children attending the open programme twice a week.

The BAS motto is 'Education First – Basketball Second'.

The BAS Foundation is supported with the project 'Free Throw – Basketball Artists against HIV and AIDS' through the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

SPORTS REPORTER