THE attentive and eager learners at the Kwang Hua Private High School in Klang caught the attention of the AND1 Streetball Challenge coaching crew and made a lasting first impression.
In a bid to drum up support for the third leg of the three-on-three basketball meet scheduled to take place at AEON Bandar Bukit Tinggi in Klang on June 28, former international Tan Kee Hian and national men’s cager Wee Chuan Chin conducted a two-hour session for about 30 trainees at the school’s newly built covered court on Friday.
Based on the youngsters’ positive attitude and outstanding commitment during the coaching programme, Tan has offered to line up additional coaching sessions for the budding cagers at the school in the future.
“To be honest, we have not seen such well-behaved children for a long time. It was certainly a joy to guide them.
“We knew that they had a burning desire to learn. They did not only follow our instructions to perform the exercises; they were also inquisitive and did not hesitate to ask us questions related to the game,” he added.
As an indication of their seriousness in going through the paces, the participants even performed warm-up and stretching exercises in a group before the two trainers started the ball rolling with the proper ball-handling skills comprising positioning, dribbling, shooting and passing.
Ng Shu Yhang, a player in the boys’ Under-18 side, said he wanted to learn the finer points so that he could be more consistent in scoring points.
“We were fortunate that the trainers shared their knowledge with us and helped us in acquiring the correct technique to shoot well,” added the 17-year-old, who has been taking part in the streetball challenge since he was in Form One.
The school’s basketball teacher, Teung Pee Hoi, however, admitted that her charges had not achieved anything exceptional in tournaments thus far.
“We are strengthening our school teams. Currently, we have three teams (boys’ Under-15, boys’ Under-18 and girls’ Under-16).
“Most of the beginners have been showing good progress with regular training twice a week. It was a good exposure for them to pick up the right techniques from the experts,” she added.
Besides instilling in the students the importance of attaining sound fundamental skills, Tan and Wee also included interactive shooting sessions to inject the additional excitement.
Accuracy: Wee (left) inspiring the trainees with his sound shooting technique.
The girls displayed their courage in taking on the boys, but went down fighting.
The boys were rewarded with a ball each for their feat while the girls went home with a wristband each.
Sixteen-year-old Eng Yuan Ying said they knew that they did not stand a chance at upstaging the boys.
“They were definitely more accurate than we were. But, we wanted to put up a brave fight and have fun competing against them,” she added.
WCT Land Sdn Bhd sales and marketing executive Adrian Soon also handed over six balls to the school as part of their community programme to inspire the students to scale greater heights in basketball.
AND1 STREETBALL CHALLENGE THIRD LEG
Venue: AEON Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang
Date: June 28
Categories (six): Boys’ Under-13, Boys’ Under-15, Boys’ Under-18, Boys’ Under-21, Girls’ Under-15 and Girls’ Under-18
Entry Fee: RM90 per team. Each player will receive a jersey and each team will be given a ball.
Closing Date: June 24
Prizes: Basketball shoes and goodies for the top three teams in each category.
Registration Centres
- One Sports Trading
Klang (03-3342 9955)
- WCT Land Klang
Bandar Bukit Tinggi (03-3324 3255)
- Keysports Marketing
MABA Building, Kuala Lumpur (03-2078 897)
- Echo Park
Sunway Pyramid (03-5638 1121), Mid Valley (03-2282 0127), Times Square (03-2144 0211), Sungei Wang Plaza (03-2141 7127)
- World of Sports
Tropicana City Mall (03-7728 0620), Subang Parade (03-5631 9578)
- Hoops Station
Summit USJ (03-8023 1229)
Partners
- Official beverage: Milo
- Official media: StarMetro
- Official radio: Fly Fm
- Sanctioned by: Malaysian Basketball Association (MABA)
Enquiries: 012-239 2171 (Ong), 012-977 9147 (Loh)
Website: http://www.and1malaysia.blogspot.com/
Remaining legs: Penang (Aug); Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur (Oct)
