DAR ES SALAAM (Tanzania) Raymond Ngezi, coach of the U16 Tanzania women's national team, describes his role in his country's basketball as fulfilling his "purpose".

Ngezi, who is on a mission to try and qualify his team for the 2023 FIBA U16 Women's African Championship in Tunisia (13-23 July), explained to FIBA.basketball that coaching is also his way of passing knowledge.

"For me, it's a sense of purpose. My purpose is to serve the community in any way possible. I started as a teacher. Now as a coach, I am also fulfilling a similar role. What is important is that I am helping to give the young women an equal opportunity to play the game," said Ngezi, who led his country to the 2022 FIBA U18 African Women's Championship in Madagascar.

Before Tanzania can even dream of playing in the continental tournament, they must go through the regional Africa Zone 5 qualifiers. As Ngezi prepares for the regional competition, he intimated how he wants his team to play.

"We are doing great. I have been working on tactical stuff on the court, like building our offence and defence. We want to show diversity in how we play. So far, the plays we have designed have run perfectly," said Ngezi.

"The other thing we are working on is building our identity. We have a term, 'I am because we are,' which means we are part of an unbreakable chain because we share a sacred identity and culture. That is what we want to portray to the outside world."

Zone 5 powerhouse Egypt is among the six teams that stamped their ticket for the African championships. The other five are Algeria, Angola, Chad, Mali and hosts, Tunisia. So, Tanzania will battle it against some of their East African neighbours in the zonal tournament.

Ngezi expects his team to emerge from the qualifiers against their potential opponents.

"We want to win. We have been in the qualifiers for more than four years. So, I expect to win. The preparation that we have put in, is to get us ready for this moment," said Ngezi. "The girls are engaged in gym, yoga and life skills sessions. Bringing together those elements has prepared us to get the results we want."

In recent years, Tanzania has had to play catch up with some of their neighbouring countries, but now Ngezi feels the gap between them is closing.

"Countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya started these youth programs before us. We have closed the gap. The only country that worries me is Uganda. We have a similar basketball program, which teaches basketball from primary to secondary school," said Ngezi. But we have prepared ourselves. We have had the necessary exposure and the resources we have received. It has put us in a position to compete against them (Uganda).

Ngezi is confident about his team's chances of making it to the age group tournament. As he puts the players through their paces ahead of the zonal qualifiers, they will hopefully be a well-oiled machine and raring to go.

FIBA