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Basketball Diplomacy
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The Georgetown Basketball program stretches far beyond the D.C. area (photo courtesy of the US Embassy_
The school of basketball moves south through Europe, as the Georgetown Basketball program sent a team of ambassadors to the town of Kolasin in Montenegro for a basketball camp
Former Hoya men's basketball player Sead Dizdarevic. recently wrapped up the second year of leading a squad of Hoyas on a trip to his home country of Montenegro in order to teach basketball to a camp of impressionable youths. "Basketball Diplomacy", as it's called, is a unique combination of education, foreign service, and possibly most important of all, fun.
The four-day event provided Division I-quality training to 40 boys and girls, but a key aim of the program was to use the nonpartisan issue of basketball to emphasize regional, and possibly eventually, global cooperation.
"I was happy to go back and have kids from five different countries in attendance," said Dizdarevic. "It was a pleasure seeing athletes from different backgrounds...work together."
The event was a marvel of cooperation on both sides of the pond, as Dizdarevic, who is now the program coordinator at Georgetown's Center for Intercultural Education and Development, received funding for the event from the US Department of State, as well as a ton of assistance from the United States Embassy in Montenegro. Staffing for the event consisted of Dizdarevic, a pair of administrators (Matt Henry, Georgetown Director of Men's Basketball Operations, and Assistant Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Leadership and Performance Augie Maurelli), coaches (Women's Basketball Assistant Coach Ashley Davis), as well as former players RaMell Ross, Amadou Killkenny-Diaw and Rhea Beal.
But as the Basketball Diplomacy staff came armed with modern coaching and training techniques, they soon discovered a squad of campers that were farther along on the basketball learning curve than they expected. Many of the players belonged to basketball clubs, and were equal to, or ahead of Americans at many aspects of the game.
"They were really good listeners and very coachable. They took what we taught them and tried it out in the five on five games," Davis remarked about the girls. "You could tell they were focusing on trying to get better."
Dizdarevic hopes that this event (now having completed its second year) will become an annual occurrence. And while most of the Hoya participants said they would love to return to Montenegro, there is a mutually beneficial element to the basketball camp.
An event such as "Basketball Diplomacy" provides Georgetown with a chance to integrate one of its strongest and most respected fields, Foreign Service, into its athletic department. Any top recruit from around the country could be interested in majoring in an area of international diplomacy, and a program such as "Basketball Diplomacy" offers a tangible example of those two interests merging. That recruiting advantage also spills over into the Montenegro basketball camp. The next Dikembe Mutombo could be in attendance, and the Hoya coaching staff will be able to hand him or her a brand new Hoya t-shirt and hat. In today's day of recruiting, one will take any edge that's available.
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