Marlene Lumabi grateful for FIBA coaching program

Marlene Lumabi, member of the Northern Mariana Islands Basketball Federation board of directors and coach for the U17 Girls National Team, is grateful for her experience in Melbourne, Australia for the FIBA Oceania’s Coach Education Program—the Marty Handson Scholarship Program—in partnership with Basketball Victoria.

The program, which she flew out to last July 6 and returned July 18, was designed to help prepare coaches for upcoming tournaments in Oceania.

The 27-year-old member of the CNMI Senior National Basketball program said that, “I’m grateful to have met coaches who gave me an idea of how they would run practice and games.”

She mentioned the helpful tips she learned were, “being simple on game day, reminding the team what they are good at, analyzing the other team’s weaknesses and turning that into their advantage, and lastly, asking yourself as a coach what would I do if I came across the offense or defense I’m teaching my team and how do I counter it. Doing this will help prepare our team if the opponent tries to overwhelm our offense and defense.”

In her short but productive time Down Under, Lumabi said that she observed different coaching styles and learned many offenses and defenses and how to execute them. She added, “Each team had a unique way of tackling the various teams they were playing against and had tactics to stop them.” 

When asked what stood out to her during her shadowing, she said it was “the shuffle offense, two sliding zone defenses, a mix of a 2-3 and 3-2 zone, and the presentation from core advantage. After coming home from my trip, I followed the warm-up 2.0; it was a game-changer. I felt less stiff than usual and was not as sore as before.”

The program only selected two coaches out of 19 active coaches in the region that were nominated by their respective federations—one from Tonga named Siale Bain-Vet and Lumabi herself.

The program was named after former head coach Marty Handson from Victoria County, Australia, who passed away in 2016. He was involved in the development of athletes and coaches across all levels of the basketball community and his program supports empowering national federations through boosting grassroots programs, enabling access to coaching development across the region.