Where in the World is GNAC? 

By: Kisha Tapangan

A horse pulled buggy or maybe a bus.  These were the o nly reliable forms of transportation for Emerson College’s Stanford Nance during his recent visit to Africa’s Senegal, Dakar, Djourbel, Somone, Mbour, and Saint Louis.  Emerson’s Assistant Director of  Athletics was able to coach and represent the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in Africa due to his work with the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s YES with Africa Program.  Even with just the basic necessities, Nance and YES for Africa continued their campaign to educate Africa’s children and young adults on the importance of education and self-empowerment.

Youth Education & Sports (YES) with Africa is a unique program that greatly emphasizes on the importance of health, environment, arts, culture and technology education for students.  For the second year in a row, GNAC’s own Nance was invited to accompany Dr. Jemadari Kamara, the Director of the Center for African, Caribbean and Community Development and Mr. Charlie Titus, Vice Chancellor of Division of Athletics & Recreation, Special Programs and Projects of UMass Boston to travel to West Africa for 18 days to continue the mission of the YES with Africa Program.

With the aid of a grant from the U.S. Department of State, the YES with Africa Program has been able to provide specific workshop-type programs for coaches and students alike.  This year, the focus was placed on offensive basketball techniques for the health and environmental segments.  Passing, efficient ball-handling and shooting were just a few of the vital fundamentals that were addressed by Nance to the coaches.  A unique facet of the program is their method of having a former coach like Emerson’s Nance facilitated the drills to the coaches who then are supervised as they teach the same drills to a group of 30 young athletes.  Nance elucidated how crucial this method was when trying to instill basketball fundamentals on all skill levels.

On a typical day during the program, Nance would aid in coaching two workshop sessions for 101 basketball coaches from all over West Africa.  Having early morning and evening sessions allowed for Nance to spend quality time with the young coaches.  Allowing for them to be students first, presented an opportunity to ask questions and also experience the drills firsthand.  Nance believes that this is a highly effective method and proved to be correct when the coaches were asked to run the drills with their assigned group of young players and showed impressive progress.

With new fundamentals and drills to teach some blossoming basketball players, the YES for  Africa’s 2010 summer trip proved to be a great success. After having the opportunity to help out some eager athletes in Africa, Emerson’s Stanford Nance feels very fortunate to have been able to be a part of such a, “..life-changing experience.”