The commissioning of the newly acquired upright by the KWARA state basketball association was officially launched on Tuesday afternoon at the Indoor sports hall of the KWARA state stadium.
Permanent secretary of the KWARA state ministry of sports and youth Development, Alh. Shuaib Akanbi Oke who was represented by Director of Sports, Coach Tunde Kazeem, officially commissioned the facilities alongside Dr Joseph Adeyemo, Chairman Kwara state basketball association.
The ribbon was cut for the upright in front of a large crowd, including the state men’s basketball team (Kwara Falcons) who were involved in a friendly game against Titans basketball academy as part of the ceremony.
Dr Adeyemo said getting the association to new heights was part of the reasons they’ve embarked on developmental projects.
He said the mission of his led board is to discover talents and also upgrade basketball facilities in every part of the state.
“We have to be in a position where we can compete. You can’t compete if you’re playing with a poor facility and this is also a major advantage for the state to host National basketball events”
“I will also like to confirm that we will be hosting a pre-season tournament here in the state between Atlantic conference teams and similarly there’s going to be a preliminary state playoff for some teams based in KWARA which the two finalists will represent us at the National division two league”. He explained.
On his part, Vice-chairman of the association, Alh. Waheed Lafenwa revealed this just one piece in a bigger plan by the association.
“With support from government and corporate bodies, we will definitely get the tools for Kwara state to be successful in basketball but we also have to give ourselves the best chance to be successful”, said Lafenwa.
Coach Tunde Kazeem, director of sports, appreciated the association for being proactive while also charging them to key into other areas:
“The sport council are proud of the association (basketball) for not being over reliant on government and I also want to use this medium to charge other associations to emulate this wonderful achievement”. He concluded
Other dignitaries at the event were the director from the Ministry of sports, Alh Shola Sheu and members of the Kwara State Basketball Association.
Just as Kwara Falcons are preparing for the upcoming season, about four teams will slug it out at the Indoor basketball court for two slot to represent Kwara at the National Division two league.
