UD receives grant for sports exchange program with Senegal

Kenneth Blakeney, UD assistant men's basketball coach, plays with a youngster in Dakar, Senegal. UD has been awarded a grant by the Department of State and is working with the National Basketball Association to conduct an educational sports exchange program with the African nation.

9:11 a.m., Sept. 27, 2005--The University of Delaware has been awarded a $326,000 grant by the U.S. Department of State and will work in conjunction with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to conduct an educational sports exchange program with the African nation of Senegal.

In support of the NBA’s continuing global efforts to grow the sport of basketball, the grant was awarded to UD’s Department of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences by the State Department’s Office of Citizen Exchanges in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Through the NBA’s international basketball instruction and community relations outreach program, Basketball Without Borders Africa, UD will work with the nonprofit organization Sports for Education and Economic Development in Senegal (SEEDS) and the Senegalese Basketball Federation, in executing the grant.

“This is a great opportunity to work with the NBA and SEEDS to develop positive relationships with the basketball community in Senegal, but more importantly it is a chance to promote the positive benefits associated with participating in sport to the youth of Senegal,” Matthew J. Robinson, associate professor of sport management and program director of UD’s International Basketball Initiative, said.

Robinson and David Barlow, associate professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences, implemented a similar program with Turkey, which began in 2003. “The program with Turkey was a huge success, and we look forward to working with NBA and SEEDS to ensure that this program will be world class,” Robinson said.

The funds will help support an educational sports exchange program that will bring six coaches from Senegal to the United States in the fall to participate in a three-week program that will include sessions with UD faculty and the varsity men’s and women’s basketball staffs, visits to the NBA league office in New York, NBA games and team practices.

The trip will culminate with a coaching clinic at the University of North Carolina, where they will meet with legendary college coaches Dean Smith, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski.

As part of the program, two Senegalese graduate students will arrive in fall 2006 to begin work toward master’s degrees in sport management. They will serve as graduate assistants with the UD men’s and women’s basketball teams and within the sport management major. They also will intern with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks during the summer of 2007. Upon completion of their graduate studies, the students will return to Senegal to take on leadership roles in the Senegalese Basketball Federation with the main goal of growing youth participation in basketball.

In addition, the UD men’s and women’s basketball staffs, along with current and former NBA players and team personnel, will travel to Senegal in September 2006, as part of Basketball Without Borders Africa, where they will take part in coaching clinics, as well as the NBA’s global campaign to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

Finally, over the course of the program, Robinson will work with the Senegalese Basketball Federation to develop youth basketball leagues and to secure grants and corporate sponsorship to grow the game within that country.

The program opened this month with a visit to Senegal by Robinson and UD assistant men’s basketball coach Kenny Blakeney, a former star at Duke University.

“The point is to teach the spirit of teamwork, to offer positive role models, to instill the importance of education and to demonstrate that with commitment,” Amadou Gallo Fall, a native of Senegal who is director of scouting for the Dallas Mavericks and SEEDS executive director, said. “Dreams can come true in whatever your field of interest. It is crucial to Africa’s future social and economic development that its young people have a sense of hope.”

Article by Neil Thomas

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