4 October 2022
Many people paid different prices for Covid-19. For Clifton basketball, it was a loss of momentum, an inability to build off of the promise of an impressive, but curtailed, 2020 season. That led to a tough 2021 season, but, now, the signs are there that the basketball programme is once again on the up.
This follows an encouraging showing in the 2022 Independent Schools Stayers’ Basketball Tournament, hosted by Kearsney College, from 30 September to 3 October.
The incoming team includes four players who turned out for the 1st team earlier in 2022, captain and point guard Alonso Cassim said after Clifton recorded a gutsy 44-38 victory over Kingswood College on the final day of the event. But it remains a young outfit, made up mostly of players who previously turned out at the under-15 level.
“Last year, we didn’t win a game at Stayers. But we’ve come back and proved ourselves with some good wins against big schools. This year, this Stayers Tournament is really going to push us throughout the season,” he said.
Inspiration
“I think the boys are really motivated this year. Last year [and its losses] gave us the inspiration. We were inspired by Jacques Mahanga’s team [2020], too. They really had a good year. We just really wanted to experience that.”
Cassim, it is clear, believes in leading by example. On the court, his play is decisive, fluid, and there is a polish to his decision-making and ball distribution that sets the bar for his team-mates to follow. He’s played in the 1st team since grade 10 and his experience shows.
The Clifton team shows hustle and teamwork and Cassim, humbly, credits others for that: “The effort really comes from the coaches and the players. The coaches are always pushing us, always making us want to do our best. I thank my coach and players for being inspiring,” he said.
Festival goals
Sibusiso Cele, the 1st team coach, explained what Clifton’s aims had been ahead of the Tournament: “We had a goal to win, at least, a couple of games in our pool. After that, we would continue to build our culture, to show that Clifton is here to fight for victories.”
There was a comfortable one-sided victory for Cassim and company in their opening game. They brushed aside Eswatini’s Usuthu Forest School with ease, triumphing 64-10, to get off the schneid that had begun in 2021 in emphatic fashion.
The remaining pool games were more challenging, with Saint David’s Marist Inanda taking a 47-27 win, and Saint John’s winning 38-16, but Clifton added another win, seeing off CAST 55-23. That set up coach Cele’s charges with a challenging last 16 clash against Michaelhouse, with the boys from Balgowan recording a 60-42 victory.
Then, in the placement games, Clifton won two of three games to finish 10th out of the 20 schools participating in the tournament. They defeated Trichardt 36-21 and Kingswood 44-38, but, after a tremendous tussle, in which they pushed the hosts all the way, they went down by just three points to Kearsney, 40-43.
Chasing new heights
Clifton has made a very deliberate move to find people to take the basketball programme to new heights said the school’s Director of Basketball, Sibusiso Mbhele said while assessing the current state of the sport at the school.
“We’ve employed guys that play professionally, that are qualified to coach the sport, and we can’t expect them to come in and coach social basketball,” he said, motioning towards coach Cele, a multi-time Basketball National League All-Star.
Cele, for his part, was satisfied with the growth he saw from his players in the Stayers Tournament, which marked the first time the team had played together.
“There was a lot of progress [from the first game to the last],” he said. “These boys have worked hard, and we are building something good.”
Director of Basketball Mbhele was optimistic about the direction the sport is taking at Clifton after seeing the give-it-your-all spirit the 1st team exhibited on the court. “The reason why these guys are having such a good showing now is their passion for the sport. They love it.
“Every now and then, they drop their shoulders when they get something wrong, but, generally, the boys at Clifton, and the team that Alonso is leading, love the sport. It’s not difficult to get the results out of them. Their love of the sport carries them through.”
There is much more that contributes to the success of the basketball programme than an on-court product, he continued: “We’re getting good support from the boys at Clifton, very nice support from the parents. They’re very involved at tournaments and at fixtures on Saturdays.
Clifton community involvement
The sport, he said, lends itself to the involvement of the entire Clifton community: “I think it’s a sport that people fall in love with at first sight. You hardly find a person that says they’ve watched a game and they’ll never watch one again because they were bored. It’s a very entertaining sport, fast-paced, things happen immediately, and I think people like that element to it. So, support from the boys and the parents is superb.”
Apart from the wins and losses on the court at Kearsney, Mbhele said great importance had been placed on the impact of off-court relationships on the development of the team and its subsequent results. He explained: “One of our goals was to play as one, because there are a lot of boys from different grades, and it was their first time coming into the open age group. We wanted to become one and be connected, when we’re on the court and off of it. I think we’re slowly achieving that.”
With their hustle and all-for-one, one-for-all attitude, with the focus on the unity of the team being a crucial ingredient in determining the fortunes of the team, Clifton basketball is, once more, ready to spring a surprise or two on more established basketball powers. When it comes to effort having one another’s back, rest assured, they won’t come up short.
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