Maltese basketball is coming from an historic week, as for the first time both the men’s and women’s teams won gold in the FIBA Championship for Small States in the same year.
The men’s team completed a flawless week with a hard-fought victory over Andorra in the final played in Kosovo.
On the other hand, the women’s selection rubberstamped their authority with a convincing victory over Albania in the final played in Gibraltar.
“The men’s tournament had a quite strong level,” Ferrante said.
“Gibraltar celebrated after winning their first bronze medal after 40 years, while Andorra, the tournament holders, again had a very competitive team, full of promising young players.
“As for us, thanks to the work of the association, we travelled with a talented squad that had several players who ply their trade abroad or have Maltese descent.
“Right from the first session, I told my players that I didn’t care from where all the players came as long as they abide by the competition’s rules. We had Samuel Deguara, who has been playing abroad since age 17, and Kurt Cassar, who has been playing in Italy since age 15.
“I believe that Maltese basketball can only improve if we have more players who are playing with foreign teams and at the same time work hard as an association to nurture young talent.
“This gold medal surely meant that we mean business and that we have a lot to work on to increase the level of our national team further.”
On his part, Bonnici said that he never believed his women’s team had the potential to win the gold medal.
“The truth is I had the expectation that we could win the tournament,” Bonnici said.
“But the team got better and better with every match we played. The hardest match was the first against Albania, who incidentally, we faced again in the final.
“Our team was very strong physically, as we could play the full 40 minutes at the same level. We had a group of young players who were making their debut who gave a great contribution to the team.
“One has to remember that since two years ago we changed half of our roster with six players still under 20 years of age. But these players had a great experience playing in the U-20 championship, which was of a very high level, and that confidence helped them to play at the best of their potential.
“It’s clear that we now have a team that can remain competitive for years to come.”
Both Bonnici and Ferrante expressed their frustration that in basketball the role of national coach is on a part-time basis given that there is just one tournament every two years and thus one cannot build a structure to nurture young talent.
“Basketball is different than other sport in how international tournaments are organised,” he said.
“Both Paul and I have our club commitments, and we are only national coaches once every two years as tournaments are played once every two years and there is no international window or the possibility of playing friendlies. We only work with the national team players for two years, and then we stop.
“It’s a pity as when you have a talented group you cannot continue to help it develop further.”
“The ideal scenario would be that a national coach is employed full time and during the year he organises training camps and tournaments, but unfortunately we don’t have those resources.
“It would be great to have national coaches heading to all schools and promoting the game, but it’s not possible in our set-up.”
Bonnici said that the basketball community in Malta must take advantage of all the positive vibe created by this double gold success of our national team to promote the sport.
“We need to try and sell the sport to youngsters so we can attract them and start practising basketball,” he said.
“The women’s game has struggled to produce players in recent years and that is reflected in the participating numbers of the local leagues. But in reality, there is a bigger chance of reaching a higher level in the women’s game than in the men’s.
“Something similar happened in football where the women’s selection enjoys more success than the men’s counterparts.
“We need to start promoting the sport in schools. We don’t have enough children that are exposed to sport. There is a growing need to have more areas where one can play basketball.
“One of the best investments done for the GSSE in Malta were the open courts in Ta’ Qali, as these are full of activity throughout the whole day all year round and we need more of these.”
Ferrante completely agreed with Bonnici.
“If you take ten players of my generation, 99 per cent of them started the sport by going in a field and started playing basketball there,” Ferrante said.
“We need to increase physical activity. We are too fussed on structured training, but kids enjoy sport by playing in open areas.
“Having more open courts will help our young players so that after learning skills in training they have a place where to go and practice what they have learnt alone or with their friends.”
The education system is also not helping youngsters to focus on sport.
“We introduced the School Based assessment so that students have less stress on exams,” Ferrante said.
“But what is happening is that students have a lot of assessments during the week, with the results that students have to miss tournaments as they cannot afford to miss the SBA tests.
“In Malta, there is too much focus on exams.”
Bonnici also questioned how physical education lessons are being done in schools.
“I don’t think that children are practising enough sport in these lessons. The basis of all sport is co-ordination and are we helping them to improve their skills? Our we allowing them to practice different sports so they can decide where they are good at?”
Bonnici and Ferrante agreed that for basketball to thrive in the future a serious plan needs to be lined up, bringing together all stakeholders to work on a common goal and it was key to increase more open spaces where youngsters can practice the game of basketball in their free time and eventually fall in love with the sport.”
