By: Nothembabane Qechane
Maseru
On March 29th & 31st 2024 there will be an Easter basketball tournament at Mohale’s Hoek. It will be held to promote basketball in the south region of the country. It engages all basketball personnel in the country. And every team interested is invited for a celebration in unison.
Basketball is a game in which two teams of five players each try to score goals by throwing a large ball through a circular net fixed to a metal ring at each end of the court.
According to Lebohang Sefuthi a referee of a basketball team who says, “the game of basketball has been everything to him,”
While referring or officiating a game as a referee his expectation is a not necessarily a smooth game, from beginning till the end of the game although that is what would please him. He states that he enjoys been a referee mostly when the players and coaches’ show respect towards him.
He was once a basketball player, having started at his primary level. He says the sport helps him network with and teach young people about the sport and how to love it, to play it well and grow with it.
He says he continues to learn about the sport from other people of different countries as to gain more knowledge.
Rets’elisitsoe Mosaase a coach since 2021, acting in two positions simultaneously coaching and team managing, states that the most interesting part on his team is that it is the magnitude of team work, love, passion for their sport, discipline and sense of belonging. And mostly the amount of support they get from the office of their District Sports Administrator (DSA) through their sports coordinator.
He adds more, saying the only challenge he is facing is that he is working with students, of which sometimes his schedule clashes with the academic almanac. Where sometimes they have to sit for exams, whereas at times they break semesters. He is however proud that they also graduate and get committed.
“I can set the pace of the game with her willingness to kick it ahead off both makes and misses,’’ says Chakale Leuta a basketball player. Talking about her relationship with basketball, she says her ball handling allows her to navigate pressure on her own as well, it may appear somehow out of control at sometimes but her decision making gets results. She continues to improve and take her game to higher levels, for instance her passing skills and vision makes her a dream for her teammates.
She claims her passion in playing sports as that tends to take one’s mind off things more especially if dealing with school and work – all in all she says basketball is therapeutic. She also states that for now, the goal is to win the Lesotho National Basketball league together as a team and, later on see themselves as young coaches for primary schools.
She concludes the conversation by saying anxiety of the games, which sometimes results in letting her teammates down is her weakness although she has already begun managing that anxiety. Basketball can help young people develop social skills and coping strategies that are useful at school, home and in peer groups.