{"id":399117,"date":"2023-09-06T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=399117"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"La-Fleur-plants-seeds-for-NMI-hoops-to-flourish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/La-Fleur-plants-seeds-for-NMI-hoops-to-flourish\/","title":{"rendered":"La Fleur plants seeds for NMI hoops to flourish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Basketball has always been a staple in CNMI\u2019s sporting world, but it\u2019s getting a boost in all aspects of coaching, refereeing, and gameplay from FIBA Oceania National Federation and Sport Development manager Annie La Fleur, who is here for a week planting the seeds for basketball\u2019s continuous flourish in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

La Fleur just wrapped up a referee workshop for Northern Marianas Basketball Federation officials last Sunday and has taught Public School System coaches during their Statewide Professional Development with a coaching workshop yesterday\u2014all done at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

After yesterday\u2019s coaching session with not only basketball coaches but other school sports coaches and physical education teachers as well, La Fleur said that they went over the fundamentals, what is technique centered teaching, and game-based teaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about providing an opportunity for players to be successful,\u201d she said. But that \u201cIt’s great to teach the fundamentals but then how do you put it into the game like setting for them to be successful in a game because at the end of the day, we’re trying to prepare our players to be successful on the court,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

La Fleur said that she came to assist as much as she could, but she will leave again, so \u201cwe want to provide that build capacity, but also the sustainability of programs. By working with educators in the country and upskilling them to continue to deliver, I think that is the priority for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that with the recently concluded coach\u2019s and referee\u2019s workshops \u201cthe enthusiasm and the willing[ness] to learn and to try and make change\u2014I think is really shown and it’s very valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked\u2014as a coach\u2019s coach\u2014what her favorite thing is about it, to which she said that it was helping facilitate change. \u201cIf you’re always doing the same thing and getting the same outcomes, I think we would want to make change. And from what I’ve seen, the questions that I’ve had, it shows that they do want to adjust things slightly, make some additions, take some things away\u2026 because it’s the players that we’re trying to really help.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, she said the hardest thing about it is if people don\u2019t want to make changes. \u201cIf you don\u2019t want to make changes, you’re always going to do the same thing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think the federation has really shown that they’ve got a strategic plan in place. They’ve got some ideas and goals and what they’re trying to do is to help increase the participation in the country for basketball\u2014but also lift the standard of their coaches, their referees and then eventually, their players.<\/p>\n

Nick Gross, CNMI PSS Athletics Program director, said at the end of the workshop, \u201cOn behalf of the Public School System, thank you very much for taking the trip. To the federation, thank you for the continued partnership for the sport. It\u2019s been fantastic. This is obviously the very tip of the iceberg in the sense of coaching and getting a feel for some different ideas to assist you in coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Sugatan, Hopwood Middle School basketball coach who attended the coach\u2019s workshop, said that it gave them a better idea how they should coach students depending on their age groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re the starting point for making the younger generation interested and making them want to come back and progress in whichever sport they wish to pursue,\u201d Sugatan said.<\/p>\n

As for James Lee, NMIBF president, he said he\u2019s loved collaborating with PSS. \u201cI thank Nick [Gross] for the willingness to link in with us. It\u2019s the grassroots area for the growth of the sport and if we don\u2019t work closely hand-in-hand with PSS, we won\u2019t be able to accomplish our goals at the competition level,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are grateful that the former [Education] commissioner [Alfred] Ada agreed to it and Nick worked on it, so I\u2019m really glad to see a lot of the educators came out to be part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coaching workshops are set to continue today and tomorrow from 5pm to 8:30pm; another referee workshop is from Friday, Sept. 8 at 5pm to 8:30pm, and Saturday, Sept. 9 from 9am to 12pm.<\/p>\n

After the coaching workshop yesterday, La Fleur hosted a clinic with the junior national girls program from 6pm to 7:30pm; a clinic is set for U14 girls on Saturday, 1:30pm to 3pm; junior national girls program clinic is from 3:30pm to 5pm; and the women\u2019s open clinic is from 5:30pm to 7pm.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

FIBA Oceania National Federation and Sport Development manager Annie La Fleur, back, gestures during a drill with CNMI Public School System coaches and Physical\u00a0Education teachers during their coaching workshop at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium yesterday.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
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<\/p>\n

Group photo of CNMI Public School System coaches and physical education teachers with\u00a0FIBA Oceania National Federation and Sport Development manager Annie La Fleur, front row, third from left after their coach workshop at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium yesterday.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
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Basketball has always been a staple in CNMI\u2019s sporting world, but it\u2019s getting a boost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}