Basketball officers discuss questions with Australian official

OCEANIA basketball development officers participated in an online forum discussion with Australia Indigenous Basketball chief executive and former Papua New Guinea men’s team coach Joel Khalu.
Fiba Oceania development manager Annie La Fleur organised the call for the participants to discuss their questions with Khalu.
“We worked pretty closely with Joel during his time in PNG and he had a pretty successful stint during his post,” she said.
“I called him to ask if he could share his experiences with the officers to help them in their development.”
Khalu, the Basketball Federation of PNG chief executive from 2015-2017, gamely participated in the discussions.
“I was excited to be in this call because I can share my thoughts and experiences with the group,” he said.
“I love the things we’re doing in the Pacific with the Basketball for Good programmes across several island nations.
“I’s fantastic to see how these programmes have grown all over the region and exciting to see more participants get more opportunity to experience basketball through the programmes.”
The officers in the discussion included PNG’s Jordan Sere, Tahiti’s Arii Meuel, Fiji’s Laurna Baleiono and Samoa’s Sarah Malaesilia.
The participants expressed their elation at the opportunity and shared their gratitude to Khalu for his knowledge.
“It was very informative,” Sere said.
“A few things I picked up was his advice on communication with journalists in PNG and how to deal with them, also on reports getting them back on time and that’s working on it right away.”
Khalu discussed several topics, including gathering data, reporting, dealing with the promotion of the programmes through the media, and coaching at the community level.
“The important thing about your work is planning,” he told the participants.
“Understand your roles in the programmes that you’re delivering and be prepared. “I applaud you all on the commitment you guys have to basketball, particularly with Covid-19 this year with all the work you’ve been doing, keep doing what you’re doing because it’s been great to see the growth of the programmes over the years.” – Fiba