“Basketball was my saviour. I found this game when gang violence was rife, brothers and sisters were killing each other for nothing. It literally saved my life,” says Gugulethu-born basketball star Vincent Ntunja.
For Ntunja, a former South African national team member, basketball took him from the ganglands to playing professionally worldwide.
A recipient of numerous awards, which including the prestigious “most valuable player” from 500 other “internationals” in Michael Jordan’s Flight School in the late 1990s. Ntunja wanted to give back to his roots after basketball had opened so many doors in life.
That opportunity arose when he met American Giovanni Freeman. Today Ntunja and Freeman are co-founders of African Grassroot Hoops (AGH) which they started in 2014 with the mission of using basketball as a symbol of empowerment for young and impressionable kids in the country.
Hundreds of underprivileged youth have benefited from the programme and on June 16 (Youth Day) and 17, AGH will be putting on their second annual Youth Day Classic at the CTICC.
Six U19 girls teams and six U19 boys teams will compete for a R40 000 prize; teams hail from Johannesburg to as far as Kenya.
When the players aren’t in competition, they will be on the sidelines in life-skills sessions run by non-profit Hoops 4 Hope. “This is all about social impact, the sport just happens to be basketball,” says Hoops 4 Hope advisory member Matt Skade.
At least 200 disadvantaged children will be in the crowd – “some would have never stepped foot in the convention centre if not for the event”, says Ntunja.
His co-founder agreed.
“When we began AGH, the idea there would be games at the convention centre was unheard of,” says Freeman.
“Yes coach,” the kids yell enthusiastically before Freeman’s defensive drill. Video: Abbie Wolf
Before Freeman started AGH, he was a coach at Camps Bay High School. His two most promising players, a skilled ball handler - one of the tallest kids in the school - both left at the end of the year for water polo.
“Basketball is not respected, that is the mentality,” says Freeman. Yet Freeman brings a commanding presence to his training sessions and there is nothing but respect and admiration from the kids. They still stray at times—like dribbling when they aren't supposed to—but Freeman looks every player in the eye and explains that they need to follow directions at all times.
Ashanti Ketchem, 12, from Hout Bay, is one of the lives AGH has touched.
“Basketball means everything to me,” she says. “I want to travel the world and play overseas one day.”
Ketchem’s life today is a far cry from what it was five years ago when she was unable to attend school because of lack of transport. She would sit at home alone and run errands for neighbours, says her mom.
Ashanti Ketchem unlocking baskets before Hout Bay Sniper practice. However upsetting it may be that outdoor baskets for the youth have to be locked up, theft is a reality in the township and Ashanti holds the key to keeping it out of her life. Picture: Abbie Wolf
During this two-year stretch of no school, she showed up to a basketball clinic run by AGH with her older cousin. Freeman says that first day Ashanti's attention was scattered, but he could see raw talent and more importantly a beginning of a love for the game.
Now, every day you will find AGH’s rising star practicing her skills in a parking lot on portable baskets.
She may not own a pair of basketball shoes, or often a full stomach, but she knows the drill: walk down the Imizamo Yethu hill, unlock the hoops from the storage container and begin the game with friends and teammates.
“Every minute of the day Ashanti is thinking about basketball,” says her mom Virginia Ketchem. “She is so excited before practice she constantly has to do something with her hands.”
Hout Bay Snipers help set up the hoops before practice in Hout Bay township Imizamo Yethu. Picture: Abbie Wolf
Ashanti then joined the Hout Bay Snipers when she was nine, a club started by Bryn Mbulawa. Once Hout Bay Snipers’ treasurer Christoph Baeumer heard about her schooling situation and helped her enrol in Sentinel Primary School in Hout Bay.
Fast forward to November 2018, Ashanti’s U12 team won the Cape Town Basketball Association championship and she took home the most valuable player award.
Coaching played a vital role in Ashanti's success, just as at AGH. Hout Bay Snipers coach Ronald Nengomasha led the team to this victory and told Ashanti she needs to stay humble as basketball is the ultimate team sport.
Nengomasha emphasises translating basketball skills to other parts of the children's lives.
He even does random classroom checks and talks with parents. If there are behavioural issues, he has gone as far as agreeing with parents to take basketball away.
Nengomasha says it can backfire with kids left with nothing to do on the streets, but in many cases, “the players are in the house cleaning and doing everything they can to impress their mother and get back to practice.”
Another coach who’s seen players go through extreme lengths to play is Captonian Thesline Davids, who will be volunteering at the Youth Day classic.
A few weeks ago, five teenage girls from Davids’ Heideveld U18 team were travelling to their Cape Town Basketball Association game when two men attempted to steal their cell phones. Some girls got away, but they targeted Nasiphi Khube as they saw her put her phone in her bag.
“He then threw me on the ground and smacked me so hard to let go of the bag, but I never let go of it,” Khube recalls. She managed to escape with her bag and ran to the courts with a scratch on her wrist and dust still on her back.
“When I asked her if she'd sit out the game she refused,” says Davids. “She said she didn't want to waste all that energy trying to fight for her life and then miss her game. I was stunned.”
It’s fitting to celebrate these players hard work and dedication to a better life on Youth Day.
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is a Division 1 basketball player at Northwestern University in Chicago working as a journalist for
in Cape Town.