by Ben Zapchenk
The idea for the girls basketball camp in Agdz started one day this past spring, when there was a week long break from school and many students were growing restless with the lack of extracurricular activities for them to participate in. After a few conversations with some female students in Agdz, I noticed that all of them were interested in participating in physical activities that would afford them an opportunity and a reason to get out of their houses. Due to the existing cultural structures in Moroccan society, many girls and women are hard pressed to find communal spaces where they can be themselves and engage in collective endeavors, whereas boys and men find no such restrictions.
To get the ball rolling on this camp idea, I spoke with the director of
my Dar Chebab and my primary counterpart about the strong interest on behalf of
the local students. Once we hammered out the schedule, times, and location for
the camp, the rest of the planning (minus the traditional certificate ceremony,
food, end of camp celebration) was on me. The camp ran for three days, two hours
a day, over the course of the week long school break. Each day we began with
basic drills and activities for learning the fundamentals of the game:
dribbling, passing, shooting, defense. The last thirty minutes to an hour of
the day were reserved for organized team activities, which primarily consisted
of breaking the camp participants into two teams and holding scrimmages between
them. By the conclusion of this camp, the twenty girls who had participated were
unified in their desire to continue learning the game and turning this camp
into a weekly club.
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| Basic drills to learn the fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting, defense |
Once again, I went back to the Dar Chebab director and my counterpart in
order to present my idea and initiate a meeting with everyone that would be
involved. After holding a few meetings with the students and parents to introduce the basketball club idea and to inform the parents as
to the benefits of participation in this club,
we were ready. For about four months on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, from
the spring up until the advent of Ramadan, I would meet with a group of 20-30
girls ranging in age from 4-17 in order to teach them the game of basketball.
We started with the basics: what the lines on the basketball court mean, how to
dribble and pass, and proper shooting form. The typical structure for each club
meeting would be as follows: thirty minutes to an hour of basketball drills and
games designed to acclimate students to the game, followed by thirty minutes to
an hour of organized scrimmages where the kids could apply those skills and
enjoy the organized chaos that comes with learning how to work, play, and
communicate with one another. After several weeks there was noticeable skill
improvement in those who were consistently attending.
There is one specific memory from
the club that will be inexorably imprinted upon me. We were working in a mixed
group of boys and girls, with half consisting of high school girls and the
other half consisting of elementary school boys and girls. After going through
drills as a collective unit, I split the younger boys and girls into two teams
for a scrimmage. After the scrimmage began it quickly became apparent that
these young ones needed more instruction about the rules of the game and the
basics of dribbling, passing, etc. Before I had a chance to intervene, two of
my older girls, Saida and Samira, stopped the game and had the youngsters form
a circle in center. For the next 40 minutes Saida and Samira taught the
youngsters the do's and don'ts of basketball: how to dribble with the tips of
your fingers, why you can't dribble the basketball with two hands, how to make
a chest pass, where the out of bounds line is and what it means, and so on. It
was a beautiful moment that made me feel happy for them and the
ownership that they were able to take in their basketball club.
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| End of camp celebration |
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| Girls taking ownership in their club |
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Posted by Shawn Dubberly
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