After a week-long capacity-building program in Abuja that wtinessed 13 elite coaches, including former African champion, being equipped with the technical knowledge in the level one coaching course, Barister Francis Orbih says that the Badminton Federation of Nigeria ( BFN) is fully focused on talents discovering and nurtuting.
Bar. Orbih, the President of BFN, in an interview with www totorinews.com said the development of badminton as a sport is a total package that involves the players, coaches, technical officials and officiating officials, all rolled into major function, which is to discover and develop young talents into elite players, capable of representing Nigeria and winning laurels for the country at international tournaments.
“We have always believed that the growth and development of the game should be a total package, not just only about the players, but the coaches, the technical officials and the officiating officials. Everything should be done together,” Bar. Orbih said.
“We have 13 candidates, young and brilliant candidates, who are transiting from playing to coaching and we just feel that this is the right time to get there, lay a solid foundation for them and build upon them.
“For us, it is a good investment and we are very sure that as the years roll bye we will begin to reap the benefits of these investment in the game of badminton in Nigeria.
He highlighted that the coaches were just picked randomly for the course, but were carefully selected after meeting the standard requirement set out by the African body and any coach who had gone through this course must be active to qualify for level two coaching course within a year.
“African body gave us certain criteria that must be met for someone to qualify to attend this course. Although a lot of coaches applied, but only 13 were selected and every zone in Nigeria is represented, but the selection was based on merit, those who met the criteria as spelt out and guided by the world body and also directed by African body.
“This is the grade level one and any coach who has concluded this course is mandated to be active. So, the coach has to be active, work for the Federation and put to practice what he or she has learnt. And in one year, how well that is done will determine whether the coach is qualified for level two coaching course, which we intend to organise next year also in Nigeria.
“If there are programmes and activities, the coaches will be engaged and be busy. If there is nothing going on, they cannot be active.
He informed that Badminton federation and its stakeholders already have plans to have competitions, especially for age- grade tournaments like the U-15 and U-19 teams inorder for these coaches to be actively engaged to impact what they have learnt in the areas of discovering and nurturing these talents.
“So, we need to have competitions, not just national, but age- grades like the U-15, U-19. There are different kinds of coaches, those who are good in discovering natural talents and grooming them, while there are those who are very good at taking those discovered talents turning them into elite players.
“These coaches have been trained and they all have their strengths. We will deploy them, put to practice what they have learnt at various competitions like the U-15 and U-19. The senior players are aging, they will not be there forever. So, at the age- grades tournaments, we will discover and groom them into becoming champions.
For a country to have the honour of being called the most populous black nation in the world with more than 200million population, which is Nigeria, he affirmed that the country is not short of talents in badminton, but lack of proper funding has been the bane of the sport.
He, therefore appealed to corporate organisations, both in public and private sectors, to take the advantage of fhe mileaage that badminton can give their products and services and partners with BFN.
“In Nigeria, we are not short of talents, we have them many. There are many talented badminton players knocking on Anuoluwa Opeyori’s door telling him to get ready to retire and they take over.
“What we really need is support and funding for these players to be exposed, go out there to play competitions, play against the world’s best and that is how they can be reckoned with.
“We are glad that we have two players who are already getting the attention of the African body and one of them is going for a training camp in Malaysia in January, 2025 courtsey of African body and it is part of the journey to prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” he concluded.
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