ZHANG JINHUA, 62, coach of the women’s basketball team of Tongren Minzu Middle School in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, has been committed to helping girls from ethnic mountainous regions achieve university and basketball dreams.

After graduation from university in 1982, Zhang was admitted as a PE teacher to No. 3 Middle School of Tongren, now the junior branch of Tongren Minzu Middle School. As the only one with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, Zhang was appointed head of the teaching group in the first year. But back then, he was a stranger to basketball.

The school had a men’s basketball team and employed a teacher from the sports school as coach. Since the men’s competition was more intense and professional, and he did not know too much about coaching basketball then, he could only help coach the women’s team, Zhang recalled.

When the women’s team was set up, things were not easy. There were only seven girls playing basketball and Zhang, who specialized in track and field, had to spend a lot of time improving his knowledge of basketball training.

As Zhang and his girls trained hard, teachers and students of the school found that the team improved greatly, more students were attracted to join them. To build a stronger team, he’s also set up elaborate training and competition systems and specific development plan for the players.

There were rules and regulations for the players’ accommodation, dining and competition trips outside campus. Besides, all of them were required to attend regular academic classes on time and conduct basketball training mainly in the morning and after school.

“Excellency demands hard work, and an excellent student-athlete should do well in both study and sports,” said Zhang. At around 5:30 a.m. every morning, the girls get up and practice some basic basketball skills including dribbling, passing and shooting. After one and a half hours of training, they had breakfast and return to normal classes.

In recent years, some student-athletes have been admitted to universities for their specialty in basketball, and some found ideal jobs on the back of their sports specialty.

So far, Zhang has groomed over 40 national Class-A basketball players and more than 100 Class-B athletes from the women’s basketball team.

“Each player is like a sapling, and they are the hope of a family,” he said.

(Xinhua)