Personality of the week – Sankoh’s mission to grow the game

What started as just a childhood introduction to the game for Alpha Sankoh has grown into a passion for coaching, developing young players and building a stronger grassroots basketball culture in Namibia.

Basketball player and coach Sankoh was born in Swakopmund and spent most of his childhood playing in the streets of Mondesa.

He started school at Namib Primary School, where he remained until the middle of grade three, before moving to Windhoek Central Primary School to complete grade three and four. He then returned to Swakopmund, where he attended Vrede Rede Primary School for grades five and six.

Sankoh later returned to Windhoek Central Primary School for grade seven before attending Hochland High School from grade eight to ten. He completed grades 11 and 12 at Academia Secondary School.

He got his first opportunity to play organised basketball in grade 12 in 2018.

“I was a tall senior who had nothing to do after the soccer and rugby season ended, so I joined my friends in creating a basketball club at Academia, and we achieved fourth place in the school league in our first attempt,” recalled Sankoh.

His earliest memory of basketball dates to 2012, when he attended an intensive after-school education programme in Swakopmund called Mondesa Youth Opportunities (MYO), which supports promising students from low-income families.

“They had just recently built basketball hoops, and we had foreign volunteers from Germany to introduce basketball to us,” he said.

Sankoh credits his brothers for his decision to take basketball seriously. His two younger brothers wanted to play the same sport as their older brother, but there were no grassroots programmes they could attend. Sankoh therefore created one for them at their school.

“I approached the school so that I could use their court to just coach them, but the school offered me a role to start a basketball programme at their school instead, and the rest is history,” he said.

He wanted to give them what he did not have growing up – a foundation in the fundamentals of basketball.

Sankoh’s first major achievement in basketball came when his first group of U/10 players won the Khomas Basketball School League undefeated.

“I could tell that grassroots basketball was about to change for them, for the school and for everyone involved in grassroots basketball. Suddenly, the number of kids that wanted to join almost tripled. I got more support from our school and especially our national federation. I was really excited for the future,” said Sankoh.

Basketball stopped being a hobby for him when he started coaching. Although he still plays, he realised that he had an opportunity to inspire more people through the sport by becoming a coach.

One of his biggest highlights was being invited by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to represent Namibia at the Mini Basketball African Forum last month.

“My greatest strengths as a coach are character building and leadership development. By being a good leader to my players and giving them a blueprint for being good basketball citizens, being emotionally resilient, and building strong character. It’s much easier to portray this to younger players, but I’m still working on doing so with older players,” he said.

Sankoh is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sports coaching at the University of Namibia, while continuing his career in futsal and working as a basketball coach.

According to him, basketball teaches accountability, resilience and interdependence. “It shows you how to own your mistakes, bounce back from failure, and sacrifice personal glory to achieve a shared goal with a team,” added Sankoh.

He further states that the biggest life lesson basketball has taught him is that he is never beaten.

“On the court, no matter the size or skills of my opponent, I’m never beaten. No matter the challenge or adversary I experience in life, I am never beaten.”

The young coach describes grassroots basketball as being like a pyramid, with grassroots basketball at the bottom and elite players at the top.

“Most kids funnel out the older they get. At first, my objective is to make sure the child comes back tomorrow. After that, I try and make sure they fall in love with basketball,” he said.

In future, Sankoh aims to complete his bachelor’s degree, obtain the highest coaching licence and create academies that focus on grassroots basketball. He also hopes to provide a pathway for aspiring Namibian coaches to receive training and obtain their coaching licences.

-hnalupe@nepc.com.na