96 Young Basketball Players Benefit From Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation Mentorship, Career Talk

96 Young Basketball Players Benefit From Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation Mentorship, Career Talk By Niyi Busari Not fewer than 96 young girls basketball players have benefitted from the mentorship and career talk program organised by Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation. To help upcoming basketball players make informed decisions on their career choices, the Foundation, on Wednesday trained young girls playing basketball in the six Southwest states of Nigeria. The six Southwest states are; Oyo, Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ondo and Ekiti. The mentees, which comprises majorly of secondary school girls from Nigeria gained a lot for being part of the inaugural Rising Stars U17 Girls Basketball Championship which commenced last Friday, December 3 and end on Thursday, December 9 with the final match between Lagos and Ogun State. Also, 26 students from Topsfield Secondary School, Ajegunle, Apapa were part of the mentees. Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation was established for the purposes of training, mentoring and providing young basketball players with platform to enhance their careers using Mentorship program to guide them in their higher career and academic pursuits. Speaking at the seminar, alumni of Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation and popular dancer, Kafayat Shefau popularly known as Kaffy, spoke on the need to mentor the young ones particularly with the situation the world find itself. She urged government and private individuals to set up inter-primary and inter-secondary schools basketball national competitions. She added that this will help the young talented players flourish in their careers which in turn reduce the high rate of crimes in Nigeria. She said, "I believe with the situation we find ourselves today in this country, we need to to open the mind of young people especially our girls as well as our boys. "I love the initiative, women in sports is so important as men as well. Women doing well in sports is so amazing especially in basketball. Basketball instill a lot discipline, understanding sacrifice, team work and I want to pass this message that the best thing you can do toward reaching your goal is knowing what it takes and driving for it it by service as well. And compelling yourself to be disciplined by sticking with the goal in order to achieve it. "I want to say kudos to Olumide Oyedeji and all those who supported to make this happen. "We need to start small. Let's start with the little league, it must not that big before we get started. Something like inter-secondary school, inter-primary school and make them very strong. Internally, we can have a Nigerian basketball league whether it starts from Colleges and it becomes something that we all look forward to for our child to be national champion at a tender age. It's not all the time that we should be international champion. If we are celebrated at home, the outside world we also do and come here to scout those young players who are making waves in the Country. And there are lots of private schools that can afford it. If we get private involved even if the government cannot do it now, private institution can gather four or five schools together and create a league for basketball in Nigeria. We can start small." In attendance as guest speaker were Olumide Oyedeji, Barbara Harper, Damilola Awosika, Cecilia Omorogbe (Channels TV), Okunlola Yetunde, and Philip Braide.