By Joe Apu
A total of 23 teams are in Maiduguri the North East Basketball Zonal Championship.
According to an excited Coach Yakubu Usman, the turnout of teams at the maiden edition of the competition is impressive.
Usman told firstzealmedia blog on Monday that he never imagined that twenty three youth teams would show up for the event and more surprising is the fact that 10 female teams participated in the competition.
“With what I saw in the last four days at the event, the future of basketball in the state and the country is bright. And we will continue to work towards it,” the widely traveled coach said.
He further stated that they have been able to discover about 20 young exciting talented girls that will form a new state team for the Zenith Basketball League.
“Personally we use to go outside the state to pick players for any major competition but with what we have seen now, that expedition is over. We now have a pool of young dynamic and talented girls to count on,’’ Usman stated.
“The crowd was there and the games were truly exciting,” he added.
The former junior International stated that the male winners, Rising Stars would surely dominate the zonal finals judging by the quality and standard of their games during the Borno leg of the event.
“That team is loaded to the hilt with talented players who will write their names in gold in the years to come.”