Co-captain of the senior national male basketball team, Olumide Oyedeji, says his annual youth camp tagged Olumide Oyedeji Basketball Camp earlier scheduled to begin on September 2, 2013 will now commence on September 9 and run through September 14, 2013.
According to Oyedeji, he had to move it in order for it not to clash with the Final 4 Tournament scheduled to hold in Lagos on September 6 to 8, 2013.
He said: “I have decided to move it so as not to clash with the Final 4 also holding in Lagos.
“It is going to hold at the Rowe Park in Yaba and I’m expecting about 500 kids from all over the country.”
He added that participants will pick the form for N1,500.
He said: “It is not about the money.
“The money is just to control the number of kids that would want to come for the programme, which I normally take around the country, but national team assignments in the last three years has constrained me to limit it to about three states for now.”
Oyedeji disclosed that the programme, which enters its 14th edition this year, has produced over 60 players who are playing in the junior as well as senior national teams, including Rashidat Sadiq, who was the MVP of the 2009 edition as well as Chukwudi Emeka and David Egbeyemi.
To tutor the participants this year, Oyedeji said: “I am inviting high profile local coaches like Ayo Bakare, who handles the national team now, Scott Nnaji and Ganiyu Otenigbagbe.
“Some foreign coaches will also come.
“This will include Luke Mbamute from Cameroon, playing for Sacramento Kings in the NBA, who will be a guest speaker.
“I have also floated the Olumide Open Youth Foundation because we want to combine education and sports for the players.
“At the Foundation, we have a Bright Future Leadership Programme where we have career and motivational talks aimed at taking the kids off the streets.”
The Foundation, which is based in the USA and the United Kingdom, he said, has a slogan: ‘Shoot a ball, not a gun and Pick a book not a knife.’
It is targeted at kids of African descent to get them off the streets.
On enlarging the camp to accommodate more kids, the former NBA player said: “I would have loved to do more.
“It is my own way of giving back to the society but for now I am footing the bill alone as I have no support from anywhere.”
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