Ogugua looks beyond Athens And that's why the former First Bank of Lagos team player has concluded that education is the key to life after playing the game in this interview.
Excerpts:-
What was the Olympic Games experience to you being the first time out for the women internationally?
Well, being in the Olympics is something that is so much a dream for every athlete. And being in the Olympics was something that I so much cherish because I never knew I would still be playing and being part of the teamFor the main fact that most of the players the Nigerian team played against, are girls that I also played alongside in Europe. For Which makes it a good thing because, for me, leaving the scene for two years and coming back and still seeing the same people I played in the same clubs with there, it is what the level of the Olympics is all about. But that experience was very valuable and would help me for any possible future activity.
What made you leave the scene for two years like you just said?
Basically looking at what the future holds for every African, if you want to be somebody, you have to think about your education, not just sports alone. Education is part of what makes you who you are, a model for the youth to follow.
I have always loved sports. I want to be in the sports scene for long. But at the same time, I asked myself the question. After sports, where will I finds myself? And how can I motivate the young ones to really love this sport, basketball that has brought this far? And the only way I could do it is to struggle to go and have bmy four years career in college which I am a junior right nopw. I'm looking forward to graduate next year.
Do you intend to take time off basketball to finish school or maybe try to combine
both?
Well, it's all a dream and a plan. Actually for me coming out from school since February 18, playing active basketball, I believe there is still a great future for me. I have more years that I can still come back to the scene. And of course, I believe fully that I would be on the scene aftewr my college career which is also something that I have to work more than where I am right now, knowing fully well that the game develops and changes. And it's a very good opportunity for me to go in and try out with the best players in the world in the Olympic Games.
When Lynda left the shores of Nigeria five or six years ago, no one was quite sure where you were or what you were doing. Can you recount exactly how it was for you outside?
I can obviously recount where I played. Athens is so a home come- back for me because that was the very first placeI started, just after my trip to Moscow. In Athens, I had a very good gaqme with Meinz. I played on the same team with the Greek no. 9 and no. 2. And we played in the European championship too. When I moved over to France, it was a dream come true and a reality for me that I had a very solid two years there playing at the highest level. It was my own decision to go to school thereafter.
Looking at how the sports market is, not having an agent to promote me or take me to the next level, the only way I could do it was school. Most of my friends I met i France came all the way from America and they are all graduates.
They definitely encouraged me to find my way to the States and have a good education. Then I can comeback after to find my level again in basketball.
What course did you choose to study?
I am have a degree in sociology but basically focussing on welfare and humannitarian services.
Why the interest in such area of study that people will say, doesn't hold much reward in today Nigerian society?
I thought of how I came into sports, embracing every soul that encouraged me , both old and young. I feel it's a very good thing that me as a Nigerian, I like to serve others. We have to really see the youth as the future; that whatever you give to the youth today, you are earning tenfold of it.
It was said unofficially that many of you players nursed injuries, youn for one on the way to Athens.One probable thing was, this could have added up to why Nigeria lost all group games and was out of contention. Another probable thing said was that injury may have slowed you and been the reason you featured so little in matches during the Games. Were you in any way carrying injury into the Games? What was your fitness level?
As far as I'm concerned, I don't have any injury. I never had one. The last injury I nursed was in 2002. It was a meniscus operastion. And I removed the meniscus and my Doctor cleared me on June 1 tyhat year after three weeks at home.Since then , I have been playing 3 on 3. I played for this same country last December in Mozambique where we won the African Championship and picked the Olympic ticket. Nobody spoke about any injury on me when we won then. Even before I came to the camp in Germany, just to be sure of the previous rumure that I was hearing, I had a check to prove myself and have evidence to show, should that become an issue. And for one day, I never missed any practice on the field of play.
I had the feeling that I have over-weight body, which I tried to do whatever I had to do to shed, be fit and play. But my talents , my skills, my love for basketball is always there. And I never disappointed for one minute that the coach gave me to play.
To what would you attribute as the problem of the team that made Nigeria not do well in Athens, despite the abundance of talents?
The problem basically was the individual process thing. I think we just needed more time to be together as a team to play as one. We were all individuals from different clubs and from different areas.And you just can't pick up as a unit whole because each tried to adapt and play what we were used to play from where we came .
I think that the most problem was that we had a short time to embrace each others' style and know how everybody plays, right from the coach to the players. The coach was new to us, we are new to him and some players are Americans, if you know what I mean. They needed more time to adapt and understand those of us already used to each other.
But I believe from the experience , that greater things will happen to the game in our countryif the federation can keep the players together may be, once or twice in Europe. They can find a means to have a programme that can bring the players together at short notice but on regular intervals. That way, the old and the young among the players can be together, play and understand each other well. The more the days together to practice, the more we can know each other better.
If the team had been together in training and playing tournaments up to six months before the Olympics, it's a different ball game.
Are you then saying that there was no acrmony amont the players that affected performance of the team?
Well, not reallybecausefrom my experience and study, you have to learn about people. We are all human beings but with different attitudes and characteristics. The best you could do is study your team mate and know her better. And all the while I was in camp, and in the Olympics, I never thought I had any problem with anybody or did I notice or experience any odd thing. Learning about others is just one of the ways I use to live my life.
BY EDDIE AKALONU
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