The U16 Silverbacks will be traveling to Kigali Rwanda on Saturday 23rd for the final preparations of the U16 Afrobasket.

The youngsters started their training on Sunday 17th and have been working to improve on their skills since.

On Tuesday 19th, Coach Michael Seger, who will be the Head Coach at the tournament, joined them and they started to work on some technical aspects.

Coach Mike’s emphasis has been defense and he introduced the team to 6 terms that they would be using.

“Dictate, Disrupt, Rebound, Race, Space and Share”

The team is mainly going to rely on the pressure defense and that is what has been being emphasized thus far.

U16 Silverbacks will be traveling to Kigali, Rwanda a week before the tournament and they hope to further hone their skills and team chemistry from there.

They also expect to play 3 friendly games, against Egypt, Cameroon and Rwanda in order to give the boys a feel of what is to come at the Championship.

A provisional squad that will be traveling to Rwanda and it’s from those that the final 12 will be selected.

A couple of players who played at the Zone V qualifiers were dropped and the coach highlighted on the new additions.

“Going to the African Championship, you need size and skill. We’ve looked to add some size on the wing and the post. We have also kept the core group of the Zone V Qualifiers” Coach Michael on the additions to the team.

He added “We do expect to continue being undersized but we like the competitiveness and athleticism of the guys we have brought on board”

When the team competed in 2023 edition in Tunisia, they only had 8 players and won 1 of 5 games.

This time around, they will be hoping to get a much better record.

One of the breakout stars at that tournament was Tejan Rugette who is now on the senior Silverbacks team and averaged 21.5 minutes.

Rugette’s footsteps will be one of the major things that most of these youngsters will be eyeing and it will all start in Rwanda.