PPI's Leadership Development Program (LDP) was initiated in South Africa in order to engage graduates of the program who are not yet old enough to coach. In other words, come 16 years old, some young leaders were just too good to let go.
Entering our third year of programming in the Middle East, we are proud to have our first players ready for the LDP. This is personally exciting for me, as over the past three years, I have watched some of these players grow from boys into fine young men.
This year the LDP team boasts a roster of 12 boys, with players from Beit Shemesh, Beit Safafa, Katamon, Esawiah, and Jericho. During the pervious months coaches training the LDP got together for the first time to team-build and begin their leadership training. They were also utilized by out guest coaching expert as a dummy team to show drills. They were incredibly helpful and added some youthful excitement to the event.
This past week, the LDP crew participated in its second LDP activity this year - a court clean-up and practice in Abu Gosh. The idea: LDP aims not only to enhance the team's basketball ability, but also to create young leaders who believe in giving back to their community. During this event, the LDP crew cleaned up a community court that is not used by them, but rather by younger PeacePlayers teams from Abu Gosh. Some of the coaches of those younger teams showed up to see the work the LDP was doing (and to lend a helping hand). There is no doubt that these coaches will bring back the positive message inspired by the LDP to their own teams.
After cleaning up the facility, it was time to hit the (clean) court. The team warmed up by jogging up and down the court. Warm-up is normally the most uninspiring part of any practice, but on this particular day, my eyes welled up with tears. I instructed the youth to run in a straight line. Through the barrage of Arabic, Hebrew, English and general grunting, the team, led by their captains of the day Amir and David, sorted itself out into a perfect straight line by the time it hit half court. Any of the youth could have put their head down and run at their own pace (as they do many times - even on Single Identity teams). However, these young men made a conscious decision that - on a team such as this - even warm-ups should be done together. For me, watching these children communicate and work together was simply inspiring.
The rest of the activity was also carried out in a similar spirit. We had a lot to go over in preparation for our upcoming game, so special attention was paid to proper man-to-man and zone defense. Stay tuned for our next event as the LDP squares off in their first match with De La Salle. Special thanks to Samer, Danny and Brian for all their coaching help. And a very special shout-out and thank you to Matt Minoff, Matt Quinn and Sean Touhey for laying the groundwork in the early years of PPI-ME, without which an event like this would have not been possible.
