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| Indian Women’s Head Coach Francisco Garcia at work with his team during training camp Jaypee Greens Integrated Sports Center in Greater Noida. |
“Vamos! Vamos!
Vamos!” Coach Francisco Garcia energetically roared at the young Indian women
on court, “Go! Go! Go!”
Garcia – a
Spaniard – admits the occasional language gap from his mother tongue to English
to Hindi or any of the other regional languages like Marathi, Tamil, or
Malayalam that the girls in his team spoke. And the girls admit that,
particularly in the heat of the moment, their Head Coach for the past 10 months
reverted back to instructions in Spanish.
Everyone
understands “Vamos!” though. Come on. Let’s Go. Forward. Aagey Chalo.
Looking forward
has become the mantra for basketball in India. Garcia, and his associate Scott
Flemming who is the head coach of India’s Men’s National Basketball team, were
appointed between a year and a year-and-a-half ago for the first big challenges
of leading India to FIBA Asia’s Women’s and Men’s Championships. They’ve stuck
around since, and as both coaches reach the end of their first contracts, their
eyes seem to be as much at the present of Indian Basketball – the next few
international tournaments – as they are on the future.
I caught both the national team coaches and the senior
men and women squads
in practice recently, as they were in camp to prepare for future international
tournaments at the Jaypee Greens Integrated Sports Center in Greater Noida.
This was the first time that the coaches were formally interacting with their
senior squads since India’s inspired performances at the Lusofonia Games in Goa back in January. Being at the great new
facility and the success of the recent past seemed to have inspired the coaches
to think more optimistically than ever. And amidst their practices, they both
conveyed a sense of long-term planning and preparation to ensure that India
remains on the path to becoming a basketball power even after their time in the
country.
The
responsibility of being ‘Head Coach’ in India extends far beyond the 12 men or
women in the national team or the 20 or so probables that arrive in camp; both
Flemming and Garcia have been working to instill a system of coaching,
training, and selection junior players from a young age so that they are better
prepared for the senior level as they grow older. Both of them have also spent
a considerable amount of their time in India coaching other coaches to make
sure their system and philosophies are passed on.
For Flemming,
his senior team assistant coaches have been instilling his tactics in the Men’s
Under-18 and Under-16 teams for India.
Meanwhile, the
Senior Men’s team has a big year ahead. In a few weeks, they
will be heading to Kathmandu (Nepal) to take part in the South Asian Basketball
Association (SABA) Basketball Championship. Victory there will help India
qualify for the Asia Cup, set to be held in Wuhan (China) in Mid-July. Sometime
in August, the national team might head to Dubai for a top level Asian
invitational basketball tournament. And finally in September, they will shift
their attention to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon (South Korea).
“We’ll be together all summer long,” said Flemming.
“I love my
players and my coaches,” he added, “It feels great to be able to help young men
improve on and off the court. I feel that I’m here with a bigger purpose than
to just coach the game. I’m here to make a difference in their lives.”
One of his
fondest moments so far in the country was his team’s
gold medal victory at the Lusofonia Games against Angola. Flemming said that he
was amazed to see over 4,000 fans in the stadium in final against Angola
chanting 'In-dia!" "In-dia!' "It was like an NBA home court
advantage," he said, "For our players, it was great to have that
support at home that basketball doesn't usually get." Flemming wants to
ensure that moments like those keep coming to India’s top basketball players
and fans of the team.
To do that, he will have to provide continuity for
the national team like never before. “I was hired to be here long-term,” he
said, “No American basketball head coach has been able to stay in India for
over one year. I am nearing the end of my second year now. I might stay longer,
but will probably know my future plans clearer sometime over the next month. In
any case, I know that I always want to remain connected with Indian
basketball.”
Women’s coach Francisco Garcia admitted to being a
little hazier on his individual future plans, but his preparations for the
future of his team seemed to be very much on track. “My contract expires at the
end of June,” Garcia says, “We will see what happens after that.”
If he stays the course, Garcia will oversee two more
Women’s national camps, lead the team for an international exposure games trip
at some point, and then head out to the Asian Games in Incheon, Korea, in September.
Garcia spoke to me last week about looking ahead to
an Indian team beyond the talents of the great Geethu Anna Jose, who has been
one of the most dominant players in the continent over the past decade. As she
has gotten older, Garcia is aware that the youth will have to eventually step
up to take her place.
“The younger players in the system have already
shown a lot of improvement,” said Garcia, who had played mostly an under-23
squad at the Lusofonia Games. Recently, in the delay before some of the
veterans had showed up to the India camp, he claimed that the youngsters had
continuing to impress him, “After [Jose] leaves the team, we'll have a major
gap in the middle and will need to find another player who can dominate the
paint. But in other areas, I think that the team has enough talent.”
Jose has been an anomaly to basketball in India, a
player so talented that nobody has even come close to match her production ever
in women’s basketball. For a decade (or more), Jose was a force at the Asian level
too, played professionally in Australia and Thailand, and even earned trials
with three WNBA teams. Jose was not at her best for India at the recent FIBA
Asia Championship, but was still important in the post at crucial moments and
played a part in India's fifth-place finish. But overall, for the first time in
the 'Jose era', the team didn't need her to put up monster numbers in each
game, and instead, the offense was more divided than it has ever been in recent
years.
So do we have the talent to make up for her eventual
swan song from the game?
“India definitely has the talent [after Jose],”
Garcia said, “But we have to work at honing that talent. We must build a system
where we can train these players at a younger age. There are other young
players now like Kavita Akula, Poojamol KS, or Jeena PS who all have the
potential to become good enough to play in foreign professional leagues and
have a good career.”
Since Garcia took over, the Women’s side finished at
a best-ever fifth place at the FIBA
Asia Championship for Women and won bronze at the Lusofonia
Games. Meanwhile, Flemming’s Men’s team has improved their FIBA
Asia finish from 14th to 11th
(and they were two close losses away from perhaps finishing a couple of spots
higher) and won gold at the Lusofonia Games. Both coaches have taken a deep
role in the development of youth players and Indian coaches.
But both Flemming and Garcia know that, for India to
truly get a bigger boost forward, a professional basketball league could be the
game-changer.
“When the league finally happens, our best players
will have a platform to shine on and to play regularly, at least for those few
months every year,” said Flemming, “Theoretically, there will also be good
coaches to guide them and the players will also stay in shape around the year.
Hopefully, the players wouldn’t need to take part in the smaller invitational
tournaments.”
“Moreover, the league might even allow NRIs to play
at a competitive level in India,” Flemming added, “That is the dream for many
of the star Indian-origin players in other parts of the world right now.”
“A proper league would make the players practice and
compete continuously,” said Garcia, “It would help our players a lot, and
especially if he can have them learn to play among talented import players.”
Despite India’s billion-plus population, sports –
not named cricket – have usually taken a back seat, and basketball like many
other sports has unfortunately overseen year after year of unfulfilled
potential among Indian talents. Things are improving though, but everyone
involved with the game in the country knows that the improvement won’t be an
overnight miracle; we have to be patient with the baby steps out of the cellar.
And the Coaches at the helm – Flemming and Garcia –
who are both on track for the longest tenures of any foreign senior basketball
head coaches in India yet, understand the importance of keeping an eye out at
the future. Whether they stay long term with the teams or not, we hope that
they can leave a working system behind that continues to identity and train
talents from an earlier age, prepare the coaches with the right coaching
tactics and philosophies, and eventually, turn some of those baby steps to improvement
into giant strides forward.
So, all together now, Aagey Chalo. Vamos.
