2023-04-19 10:43:00
“We use basketball as a catalyst, as a way to grow these young people to their potential. »
This is how El Kabir Pene sums up the philosophy of SEED Academy in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com.
The former Senegalese international is the general manager of this institution, which brings together 20 boys and 20 girls at the National Center for Popular and Sports Education of Senegal (CNEPS) in Thiès.
On this campus located about fifty kilometers from Dakar, students from sixth to final year pursue their dreams. Not only in gymnasiums, but also in classrooms. The schedules are organized so that they can train at least two hours a day in parallel with their school curriculum.
Some are housed in host families while others sleep in dormitories located a few meters from the grounds. In any case, the big orange ball is never far away, whether it is drawn on the walls of buildings or within reach in the rooms of apprentice basketball players.
The lucky winners who come from all over Africa have been selected through a process that symbolizes the dual project touted by the Senegalese establishment. On the menu of admission tests, there is basketball, but especially French, English, mathematics and sometimes science subjects. Throughout their schooling, the athlete and education are linked.
The possibility of training is conditioned in particular by obtaining good grades. The pedagogical team made this choice for a good reason: at the SEED Academy, sport is above all a means of training the “African leaders of tomorrow”.
“Basketball is just a pretext. In reality, studies are a priority. We want to develop the success of these girls and boys. We want to train them so that they can be leaders everywhere”, sums up Alioune Chimère Diouf, the academic manager of the SEED Academy.
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Students adhere to this way of conceiving their course.
“The academy is a very good opportunity for young people, here in Senegal, to be able to show their talent, to have opportunities to travel and to learn a lot of things”, announces Fatou Faye Sanéwhose ease in responding to interviews makes us forget his young age.
“You have to have good grades, work at school and on the pitch. To come here, you have to work. It’s as if we’re at home: notebooks, lessons, everything is monitored,” explains Tohonamou’s suggestiona native of Guinea who sees his stay in Senegal as a springboard to the United States.
Many students have the goal of crossing the Atlantic and the courses are designed to prepare them for this. From an academic point of view, but also in terms of interpersonal skills or good manners. Tutoring sessions are organized during free afternoons to enhance their skills in many areas, including communication. During training, community life allows them to pull themselves up and potentially progress until they win a university scholarship.
By pursuing the same goals in their professional lives, basketball players who share the field and the same passion form much more than a team.
“I learned values and something more important than playing basketball. I knew a second family here. It’s not just one team training and playing, but 20 girls living together, having the same opportunities and the same aspirations. We stayed in touch, because it’s a bond that lasts forever, “explains Mame Fatou Konareformer student and new communication manager of the SEED Academy.
His career is a source of great pride for his former teachers. Above all, it is proof that the greatest successes are not necessarily those that make the headlines in the sports media.
Alioune Chimere Diouf wishes to recall that “those who have succeeded outside of basketball are much more numerous and weigh more in the balance”.
“You can go around the world, you need to come back here to share your knowledge”
El Kabir Pene, the general manager, also salutes the men and women who shine far from the parquet floors. “I remember the human and social successes of the young people we caught while they were on the street. Some were unemployed young people and now they have responsibilities in banks or companies on an international scale”.
SEED Academy students run after their dreams as much as after the ball. And as on the ground, the collective is put forward. THE giving back is one of the pillars of the institution and comes up in many discussions. It is displayed in the general manager’s office and remembered with the portraits of certain former members of which Gorgui Diengwho is finishing his tenth season in the NBA, but remains close to the academy that allowed him to join the University of Louisville.
“What matters is not athletic performance, but the impact you have on the people around you,” explains Mame Fatou Konaré. As in any family, the elders advise the younger ones and help them prepare for the challenges ahead, including moving to a new country.
Ibrahima Sankaré studied in the United States, became a professional basketball player and joined the Senegalese national team. But he returns to train regularly at the CNEPS in Thiès to share his experience.
“The best thing you can do is bring that experience back and advise those young people who have the same dreams as you. They asked me more than 50 questions about my career,” says Sankaré, who also considers the SEED Academy as a family. The elders keep in touch and maintain a virtuous circle like Matar Mbodj which leads where he studied.
“You can go around the world, you need to come back here to share your knowledge and give them the opportunity to play all over the world and be better people. »
A comparison between the SEED Academy and the Ubuntu philosophy
El Kabir Pene sums up this mindset with the Ubuntu philosophy. Every member of SEED Academy is participating in something bigger than themselves, a goal that has been the same for over two decades.
The name and logo of the institution recall this desire and the general manager is one of the guarantors.
« Seed, is the seed. And this seed grows and expands until it becomes a baobab, this gigantic tree which plunges its roots deeply into the earth where our values rest. Its gnarled and majestic trunk symbolizes everything that is put in place around this project. And it is said that each of its branches prepares in its budding buds the new generation that continues to perpetuate this tradition. This transmission is the sap that should enable SEED to last as long as a baobab tree, that is to say centuries. »
The SEED Academy has already contributed to the sporting or professional success of many young people in Africa, and this is only the beginning.
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