Over 200 kids floods 19th edition of Olumide Oyedeji Basketball

Over 200 kids floods 19th edition of Olumide Oyedeji Basketball clinic By Dare Kuti Over 200 kids from different part of the country flooded the day one of the 19th edition of Olumide Oyedeji Basketball Camp in Lagos According to the facilitator of the camp, former NBA player, Olumide Oyedeji said the clinic is to build a better child in the society. He revealed that the vision remains developing the young child mentally, emotionally and psychologically to be better basketball players.  "The turn out on the first day was wonderful, over 200 kids (boys and girls) from the ages of 2 to 18 years came out enmass. We had a lot of fun with them".  "We go beyond basketball because this is not just a basketball camp. We have career talk, motivational speech including  celebrities visiting the clinic to have words with them", said the former Orlando Magic player "This is to let them know that there is life after basketball and inform them about the importance of education as well as disciple in order to become better leaders".  The former Shanxi Zhongyu player said, "The target of this year's camp is to surpass the past editions and still maintain the vision and focus which is developing the young child mentally, emotionally and psychologically to be better basketball players. It's going to be more of a session where they are guided to be independent and the development of the country".  "As the 19 edition, we intend to make life better for the children and make them believe that education is extremely important. You have to be self oriented, have vision and develop a skill that can sustain them for life". The former Captain of Nigeria Basketball team said the program has produced players who currently plays in the senior national teams. He noted that past participants of the program are scattered across the globe plying their trade outside the country.  "By the history of the camp, we have over 100 players that played for the country in the junior and senior National basketball teams which includes Nkechi Akachili who won the women's Nations Cup (AfroBasket) and Zenith female league MVP talking for years, Uju Ugoka a member of the progress team, Kaffy (The dancing queen) amongst others. "Over 300 got scholarship and are studying in the United States of America, about 60 are playing professional basketball outside Nigeria and we have five alumina who are currently in the NBA academy (four in NBA Academy in Senegal and One in NBA Global Academy in Australia)", added the Ex-Tigers captain Oyedeji added. Over 45,000 children have participated in the camping exercise so far with centers in Kano, Portharcourt, Kaduna, Jos, Abeokuta, Ibadan ,Osogbo and Abuja. The Olumide Oyedeji Basketball clinic have done global clinics in countries like; China, South Korea, Spain,Japan, U.S.A, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Angola and many more countries. The 19th edition of Olumide Oyedeji Basketball clinic will run from 27th August 2018 to 1st September 2018 at the Row Park, Yaba, Lagos State.