Kenya national champions Eagle Wings recently participated in the African Champions Cup for Women. They qualified by winning the Africa zone 5 basketball championships where they beat compatriots Kenya Ports Authority 77-54 in the final.
Led by Samba Mjomba, Silalei Shani and Angela Okoth, Eagle Wings were several notches above the rest of the competition in Zone 5 as they won some games by close to 60 points. This was the second time Eagle Wings had qualified for the Africa tourney. The last time they qualified, they had to withdraw due to lack of funds. It was a relief for Kenya basketball fans when the Ministry of sports disbursed funds. Finally Eagle wings had an opportunity to measure themselves against top tier opposition.
Results
Their results at the Africa championships were as follows:
CS SFaxien (Tunisia) 64 Eagle Wings 47
Inter Clube (Angola) 62 Eagle Wings 48
First Deepwater (Nigeria) 79 Eagle Wings 45
Arc-en-ciel 0 Eagle Wings 20 (walkover)
ABC (Cote’d Ivoire) 66 Eagle Wings 46
Classification Match: Eagle Wings 59 Ndella BB (Gabon) 51
A Valiant Effort
Eagle wings are a self supporting club. This means that not only dont they have funding but their players probably spend their own money to play. So the fact that they have been the best team not just in Kenya but in East and Central Africa is quite an achievement.
They scored at least 45 points in each of their games and lost by a reasonable margin. They also managed to win their classification match against Ndella of Gabon. It was a decent performance considering the fact that they were playing against teams with better financial support.
Lack of Player development
In 2012, three Kenya womens teams have played against their Tunisian counterparts and lost. The national football Under 21 team lost narrowly to Tunisia in the world cup qualifiers. The national sevens rugby team came agonisngly close to qualifying for the world cup before loosing to Tunisia and here Eagle Wings lost to CS Sfaxien of Tunisia. This shows that Tunisia are doing a much better job of developing their talent. Their players simply have better fundamental skills than their Kenyan counterparts.
Kenya has only one talent development center (Shimba Hills). This means that most players in the Kenyan league are products of secondary schools where most coaches havent the slightest clue how to nurture and develop talent. Visiting coaches have often said that Kenya players are talented but lack basic skills such as ball handling.
There is a strong need to have several talent development centers in order to raise the standard of play for Kenyan teams. With better talent development at a young age, Eagle wings, KPA and other Kenyan teams will be better equipped to compete against Africa’s best.
Ideally, there should be several talent development centers for girls basketball all over the country and Nairobi with its massive population should have at least three. There is plenty of talent that is going to waste and those who are exposed to basketball are not getting the lessons they need. This is the primary reason Kenya lags far behind other African teams.
Kenya needs community teams
Eagle wings is a self supporting team but it is not a community team. In order to build a fan base, Eagle Wings should consider identifying themselves with a geographical region. They could rename their team with a name like “Eastlanders” to identify with Nairobians who live in Eastlands.
By building a fan base this they will be in a better position to draw fans by selling match tickets, jerseys, T-shirts and other merchandize.
As things stand now, Eagle wings will probably cease to exist in a few years. This is typically what happens to self supporting teams when the person or people who provides them with financial support looses interest.
Lack of residential training
Again due to lack of financial resources, Eagle Wings were unable to embark on residential training unlike their opponents. This did play a part in their losses
This was to be expected
A Daily Nation article was headlines “Eagle Wings flatter to deceive”. It went on to explain how much more was expected from Eagle Wings especially after what the writer termed as “Kenya’s excellent performance at the 2011 All Africa Games.
It is such a shame that the people charged with informing Kenyans about the sport are so poorly informed. Anyone who follows Kenya basketball closely knows that Kenyan teams have never done well at this tournament. Newspapers like the Daily Nation should know that the problems plaguing the sport in Kenya such as lack of youth development are the reason wht basketball continues to stagnate in Kenya.
All in all a positive outing
Despite loosing all their preliminary matches, Eagle Wings players will have gained valuable experience that they can use going forward. Kenya fans have been provided an aoppportunity to see where they stand relative to the rest of the continent.
The Squad
Susan Akinyi, Linda Nyikuli, Angela Okoth, Samba Mjomba, Silalei Agalo, Bridgit Nanzala, Everlyne Nora, Denise Apondi, Rebecca Sarange, Sharon Okeyo, Eunice Ouma and Linda Nyikuli.
Team officials are- Wesonga, Nelly Odera (team manager), Thomas Olumbo (coach), Everlyne Kedogo (assistant coach), Kennedy Barasa (team doctor) and Lillian Omwenga (government rep) and Vitalis Gode (ref).
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