JOVITO LOPES
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
PANJIM: The Goa men’s basketball squad, preparing directly under the SAG for 3rd Lusofonia Games to be held in Goa in November, will embark on their first exposure trip after a short, first preparatory camp, participating in inter-State invitational Atul Bhise Open invitational basketball tournament for men and women in Miraj from February 16.
The team `Goan Hoopsters’ will be led by Ashish Bhujpal with the other members being Ashish Bhupal, Charles D’Souza, Francisco de Souza, Terence Vaz, Aakash Madgavkar, Abraham Menezes, Flobert Monteiro, Joyston Brito, Shivkumar K Uandgoti, Lambert Godinho.
The squad however, will be missing two prominent and experienced trainees – Daley Fernandes and Amish Jain, who had to drop out at the last minute because of some professional commitments. The coaches accompanying the squad are Sandeep Warlikar and Dilip Ghosh.
Actually, the squad received several invitations including a prominent tournament in
This will be the first time after many, many years that a senior State men’ squad has been selected and will participate in a tournament for seniors. This was made possible due to the directives of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and support from Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar, SAG Executive Director Elvis Gomes and
The basketball camp begun on December 17 with the trainees (men and women) having shown improvement in their conditioning as well as techno-tactical abilities during the short duration, stated chief coach Sandeep M Warlikar, who has been assigned the special task. Dilip Ghosh is the other coach involved with the training programme.
Sandeep, who has charted out a well planned strategy and has been going about with a single-minded zeal, spelt out that the objective tests will be conducted shortly both for men as well as women teams as part of continuos and comprehensive evaluation.
The first phase from December 17 to March 31 deals with assessment and review of individual players fitness/abilities, simple group tactics, exposure tourneys. The second from April 1 to June 30 will cover assessment and review of positional players and team composition, complex group tactics, scrimmages, exposure tourneys.
The third phase from July 1 to August 31 will focus on team composition with the final team to be decided by August 31 while the fourth from September 1 to October 31 will concentrate on set plays, team tactics, team strategies, starting five combinations, individual brain storming sessions, team brain storming sessions, motivational sessions, relaxation techniques by psychologist, experts briefings.
The entire process begun with the selection committee comprising Sandeep Warlikar (SAG coach), Dilip Ghosh (SAI coach), K Sathyanarayana (SAK coach), Navin Acharya (SAG) and Chetan Kavlekar (GOA), both in the capacity as observers, conducting the trials which were held mainly on objective lines with standard and modified test batteries with norms and scorings to suit the standards of the players.
Women players have also been selected with the probables being Nelvie Mendes, Michelle Fernandes, Shaheen Rebelo,
Maria Kezia Fernandes, Reanne E Mendes, Aishwarya Pai, Rose Rhea Rebelo, Sandra Joao, Radhika Jalan, Sherlaine Fernandes, Josipa Dias, Claudia Gomes, Muriel Gracias, Shivani Gaunekar, Janice D Fernandes.
This is the first
Sandeep, who stressed that whatever has been planned and is being carried out is the result of superb team work with his colleagues and SAG. “Their support, collaborative spirit and backing has been superb,” pointed out the chief coach.
In any case, Sandeep deserves a pat on his back for taking up the big challenge. One hopes he would carry on with the same zest and fire till the end, for which the SAG must continue providing him unqualified support and even a higher degree of patronage for the sheer sake of basketball in
