Story and pictures by Leslie Tan
Basketball fans can look forward to a mouth-watering clash between the adidas Under-18 basketball Selection and the Singapore national Under-18 team on March 21, 2008. The players for the adidas team were picked at a trial held in December 2007 and they have been training together every Saturday since the first week of January 08.
In a friendly game recently against Team DOS, a National Basketball League Division Two team, the adidas U-18 squad showed what they were made of when they won the game 91-64.
School teams usually have only one coach but for the adidas U-18, they have the benefit of three coaches: Hsu Tung Ching, Hu Guang and Andre Wong. Coach Hsu was a former Taiwanese national player who played professionally in Japan. Asked to comment on how he found the training, Low Wei Song of Republic Polytechnic said: “Here we have three coaches and they have come up with plays to suit us. The challenge for us is to play as a team if we are to beat the national under-18 team.”
All the players, who are wearing either the adidas Team Signature Lightspeed or Lightswitch shoes, are out to impress selectors when they play the national U-18 squad because two ballers will get selected for basketball training camps in China and the United States of America.
“The main emphasis is on teamwork,” said Andre Wong, who also coaches Anglican High, Temasek Polytechnic and Nanyang Junior College. “The young players, like Richard Neo, are humble and willing to learn.”
Khaw Yeong Wooi, a key part of Catholic High’s championship-winning teams of the last three years, also saw a lot of shooting time in the adidas U-18 team, a different role from his usual for Catholic High.
“We have also brought Khaw Yeong Wooi out from under the basket,” said Coach Wong. “Because the other players in the team are big enough to play under the basket, Yeong Wooi can afford to shoot from the outside now. He is a good shooter.”
The game between the adidas U-18 team and the national U-18 team will take place on Saturday, March 15, 2008. The venue is the Singapore Basketball Centre but the timing is to be confirmed.
N.B. We are unable to provide more details of the national U-18 team at the moment as we have not been able to get hold of the information from the Basketball Association of Singapore.
Please provide information regarding the school you come from if it’s missing from the above captions. Just leave it in the comments section. Thanks.
thanks green =)
to weihong/xiong. good luck for tmrw’s match.! (: im your supporter from tjc. although you don’t know me, really wish you good luck and take care! all the best! i will be praying for you.
Wei hong? i thought is wei xiong?
[…] adidas Under-18 team was selected at the end of 2007 after a trial and they have been training together every Saturday for this game against National […]
When and where is the match between adidas u18 and singapore national u18?
Kan Wei Hong 189cm ???? >< 169cm !!
yeah. adidas have been training very hard. keep it up team ! =) lose or win doesnt matter. just know tat this is an experience for u all. and do yr best =) jiayou everyone !
wa lao…it will be very nice…cos we can see jia wei from national U-18 VS Richard from adidas U-18…it will be very nice man….both are strong…and they are both friend…hahas…
i’m Kan Wei Hong from the adidas U18 squad..
I’m from Temasek Junior College currently..
Thanks!
haiz
TIming and date to be confirmed. So please check back regularly for updates.
hmms .. the match between both team is on 21 or 16 ? cos there is two section where it says different date ?
i’m one of the player of adidas team,we have put in alot of effort during training, every player is humble and willing to learn what coach taught us. Hope we can beat the national under 18!!!