Bringing basketball to the community

Sports For All vs Cardinal Langley basketball game.

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Cardinal Langley Basketball Club (CLBC) played a Sports 4 All (SFA) select X1 in a friendly fixture on Sunday (9 August) at Springhill Sports Centre.

The aim of the event was to promote community cohesion through basketball to those living within black minority ethnic communities in Rochdale.

Dean Sorah of both Link 4 Life and CLBC said: "I was aware of the work SFA undertakes at grassroots level. It was the ideal organisation for me to approach to enable me to reach out to the BME communities and get them interested and involved in playing basketball.”

Asif Rafiq, the Chairman of SFA, said: “We have always enjoyed a good relationship with Link 4 Life and have got to know their coaches. After Dean approached us, we put the word out and managed to arrange a couple of training sessions. A few of the lads now wish to continue developing their skills in basketball and we look forward to them doing that with CLBC.”

The match was played in a jovial atmosphere with both teams enjoying the spirit of the other. CLBC ran out winners 69-35, with John Howarth voted the man of the match for his outstanding all-round contribution.

Hanief Mohammed, one of the organisers, added: “Just watching CLBC moving the ball around and working as a unit was a good learning curve. We empower young men with key skills, such as team work, discipline and organisation skills, and hope they find them useful in the mainstream communities they live in. The bonus today was that some of these young men wish to develop their basketball skills even further.”

Steve Lavallee who coaches both the junior and senior teams for CLBC commented: "As a club it is important to stretch out to any hard-to-reach communities and invite men and women of all ages and backgrounds to come and enjoy a sport that can provide them with so many different skills. I am pleased after today’s event, that some lads from SFA will be visiting us and extend their skills and our club further.”

A further friendly fixture is being organised between the two organisations in November.

CLBC run their training sessions on Tuesdays 7-8pm for Juniors and 8-10pm for adults. The new season starts on 1 September.

Anyone interested in learning and/or developing their skills in basketball should contact Steve Lavallee on lavalleefamily@btinternet.com.

Sports For All run three sports clubs a week. They also act as mentors to two womens' clubs. Anyone interested in staying healthy by enjoying football, indoor cricket, Martial Arts and Basketball should contact hanief@sport4all.org.uk.