Olumide Oyedeji Foundation on Wednesday said it had trained 40,000 kids through its basketball camp since inception in 2001.
Its founder, Olumide Oyedeji, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
NAN reports that the Foundation opened a camp to train another batch of 400 kids on the rudiments of basketball at the Indoor Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, from Aug. 21 to Aug. 25.
Oyedeji said the main objective of the exercise was to discover the next generation of basketball stars for Nigeria.
“We have over 400 campers right now and since inception we have had over 40,000 kids that have passed through Olumide Adedeji Basketball Camp.
“It has been wonderful, great, exciting and challenging in some ways. But overall it has been great because we have done this all over the world.
“We have done it in Asia, South America, Nigeria and Europe.
“We have about 10 countries in Africa, four cities in Europe, two cities in Asia, two cities in South America,” he said.
He added that the difference between this year and past editions was that the camp received more kids.
“This is the 22nd Edition. We have over 400 kids from over 10 cities in Nigeria, already.
“The difference between this year and others is that for the first time ever, we have over 400 kids on the first day.
“We are getting more kids every single day,” he said.
He said future leaders from other fields had emerged from the basketball camp, and that the foundation would not relent in searching for more talents.
“We have future tigers or tigress players not only in basketball, but we have a lot of kids that have gone through this camp and they are doing very well in other fields.
“Just like Kaffy the dancer, Vecto and CDQ, both musicians; they were in the camp 11 years ago.
“We have also seen lawyers, bankers and also pilots. We have also had over 100 junior and senior tigers and tigress players that have emerged from this camp.
“We have Rasheedat Sodiq who is an Olympian and the former Captain of the Tigress. We have Samuel Ariyibi who is playing in Washington; we have Charles Bassey in the NBA.
“We have so many of them in both the female and junior teams, and they are doing great,” he said.
Akinyemi Agbolusi, an eight-year-old, said his experience in the camp had been wonderful.
“The camp is very ok and our coaches are very nice. The skills and techniques that the coaches are teaching us are very good. I would like to play in the NBA, and also play like Olumide Adedeji,” he said.
Ayomide Rasak, a 17-year-boy, said the experience so far had been top notch, noting that with the skills and techniques acquired, he could make a living from basketball.
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