Team work and collaboration between several people and Eri-internationalsports played a huge role in what was a very exciting and educational Eritrean basketball showcase in St. Paul, Minnesota at Macalester college’s campus. This was a first of many to come as talented Eritrean basketball players from around North America and Europe gathered to show their display to coaches with high caliber experience that could analyze their skills. In the process the idea of building and developing potential basketball players for Eritrea’s national team that would be mixed in with players from within Eritrea also became a step closer. The showcase featured more than 20 players, largely in the teenage range, from the U.S., Canada and even a couple from overseas, all of Eritrean descent.

Alexander Loul Syum, whom Eri-internationalsports recently did a feature on him becoming a head coach at Mt.Hood community college in Portland, Oregon was the main catalyst for this event as he put in many hours of work in making sure all details were in place. After a year long meeting with a group that included Eritrean American head basketball coach Abe Woldeslassie, an Eritrean working with NBA developmental league, Robel Kidane and Esayas Gebrekidan an NCAA division 1 basketball coach who last coached at powerhouse St.John’s University in New York along with Eri-internationalsports the idea started to come together in harmony to make sure that the main important part of this event is to build Eritreans in the diaspora become better in basketball while also finding ways to network and help the basketball program in Eritrea through different means including allowing Eritreans in the diaspora to become part of the national team programs at the FIBA (Federtaion International Basketball Association) level. Abe Woldeslassie was kind enough to work his magic as head coach of his school to allow the venue for this event in addition to sharing his incredible basketball knowledge. With St. Paul’s central location in the country, Macalester seemed like a natural fit to host the first showcase from a travel perspective. In addition to bringing the players together the idea of using TiDination’s (Tidishop.com) apparel also became a reality. TiDi is a brand that is working with Eri-internationalsports to promote sports all around the world with Eritreans playing a big role in its development. We will have more on TiDi which stands for “Think It, Do It” as we continue to integrate its products in the sports scene of Eritrea.

The event was well attended and a great weekend was had by all in terms of education and coming together to build an Eritrean basketball community that will also extend its arms to the rest of the world including Eritrea in the very near future. Eri-internationalsports congratulates all the people who were a part of this event, including coaches like Asmerom Abraha who was based in London for many years working with the Eritrean community in Europe to help build basketball. We would also like to thank all the parents who made this sacrifice to bring their children to this event during a weekend of festivals in Dallas, Texas. In the future the collaboration with the Eritrean Festival is one of the plans we have to make this event more inclusive to other young Eritreans.

Erisports.