Guest Blog: Eric (on Coaching Basketball)

Bright and early at 6:30 on a Saturday morning, the Ukarumpa International School’s boys’ basketball and girls’ soccer teams loaded up in a convoy of four 15-seater vans to make the trek to Goroka for a day of sports competition with teams from the New Tribes missions school. The roughly 50-mile drive led us along winding ridges and pothole-infested roads for two and a half hours!

The games against New Tribes were the first official games for our teams this term. The games were also a unique experience for our boys’ basketball team; most of our games and practices take place on an outdoor court, but New Tribes has a full-size international court in their gymnasium. For the first, and possibly the only time, our players had to deal with a raucous crowd. I lost my voice by the end of the day trying to shout over the crowd to be heard.

There will be another tournament in the middle of March, which will be the only other set of official games the team has. Every Tuesday, a group of nationals who work on center play a scrimmage against the team, and a game against a group of expatriate men in Ukarumpa was also organized earlier in the season. I have had to share reffing responsibilities at these games, since we don’t have any official refs!