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Women’s basketball league defending champions, Equity Bank, will settle for a youthful squad this season after deciding to recruit only players below the age of 30.
At the same time, Equity Bank’s sports co-ordinator, Louise Araka, said they have decided to change the structure of their basketball teams.
In these changes, former women’s team head coach David Maina gets promoted to the position of head coach of the men’s and women’s teams with separate coaches for the two teams operating under him.
Carey “T9” Odhiambo, who had a brief stint with Patriots of Rwanda, has returned as the men’s team’s coach while four coaches - Sylvia Kamau, Ben Oluoch, Sadat Aya and Bosire Bokongo -who will be helping during the trials for the women’s team, which start Wednesday, might be considered for the position of women’s team coach.
According to Araka, it is in the interest of the bank to have only youthful players who will give service to the team for many years to come, as opposed to veterans who play for a short time.
“We want to dominate the National Classic Basketball League and the Zone Five championships for a long time, hence our decision to recruit only youthful players who can be with us for a long time,” Araka said.
Araka said trials will be for all the players who did duty for the team last year “and any other who would be willing to play for the club” and warned that no player will be considered if they failed to attend the trials.
“As we speak, the Equity Bank women’s basketball team has been disbanded and all players, old and new, must attend trials to be considered for the season otherwise we will assume that they have moved to other clubs,” she said.
After failing to defend their Zone Five championship title, finishing a distant fourth in Dar es Salaam last October, Equity Bank returned to the local scene with renewed energy beating KPA 3-2 in the playoffs final to defend the league title last December.
