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How Gad Eteu transited from hoops to goalposts
Working the dream. Eteu with his ISC academies and workmates. The hoops coach finding a lease of life in soccer in the US. Photo/Courtesy
BY ISMAIL DHAKABA KIGONGO
We all dream of a good life and even better, sometimes wander into what many may view as out of bounds.
When Gad Eteu first visited the US in 2009-2010 on a basketball coaching programme, he set himself a lofty ambition.
“I worked with John A. Coleman High School in New York,” Eteu says of his first real interaction with the game of hoops at its Mecca.
He would return home and wait another two, and then five years for another opportunity to learn from people almost every basketball fan adores.
“I went back to the US in 2014. At the time, I had hopes of joining the NBA as a video coordinator. I had a chance to interview for Indiana (Pacers) but it fell through,” Eteu says.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is an American men’s professional basketball league. It comprises 30 teams (29 in the US and one in Canada) and the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world.
Had Eteu got there in any capacity, he would be the first Ugandan to break that glass ceiling.
Deflated, he went to work with affiliate colleges. Jobless in a foreign country, living with a friend was all he could.
“It was a very rough time,” he says.
The former Uganda National Basketball League (NBL) winning coach spent two years as a scout and volunteering, the latter taking him to Metro High School. That is the last time Eteu, who first joined basketball as a player in 1996 at Masaba SS, was involved with the game as a new door flung open.
Answers in the past
Two years ago, down but not out, he started digging into his archives.
“When I was in Uganda, I worked with KKL (Kampala Kids League, now defunct) as a programmes manager.
“(As peace returned), Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) chose to implement a soccer programme for previously abducted child soldiers in northern Uganda. My goal back then was to learn as much as I can. My dream has always been to start a soccer and basketball academy.”
Equipped with this knowledge acquired in the mid-2000s, Eteu started International Sports for Change (ISC) Inc. in late 2018 as non-profit community organisation.
“I started a youth and adult soccer programme in Indianapolis, Indiana, that focuses on teaching youth soccer skills and bringing communities from diverse backgrounds together using soccer. We transform lives through sports,” he says.
Basketball was firmly ‘buried’ in his life. The death of his grandmother last year motivated him to make a difference and he put up a group of people who have helped.
ISC has since partnered with Finch Creek Fieldhouse, located just north of the Hamilton Town Centre, Indianapolis.
The Fieldhouse has an indoor youth athletic facility boasting 65,000 square feet of turf. The facility features two high school-sized infields for the community’s baseball and softball players along with 11 batting cages.
The turf field also provides two full playing fields for football, soccer, lacrosse or rugby. The facility also boasts five courts for basketball and volleyball games. This multi-sport facility is any young athlete’s dream.
Here, Eteu started “with 18 kids and two adult soccer teams with 50 people per programme” from the community.
“My goal is to expand to 150+ and transition to full operational capacity with U5, U7, U10, U13 and eight adult and youth teams up from the 250 people.”
The community are able to register for an eight-week season with a year having five seasons and Eteu plans to have international support by 2023.
All this is a total break from Eteu who can only be identified by his association with basketball that started 24 years go when he was introduced to the game.
“I joined the second-generation Falcons with Robert Mafabi and lost first championship to Nkumba Marines in 2006,” he recalls.
Falcons started in late 90s and would go on to win the league in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The last of Falcons’ six titles, a record for ages until City Oilers won the last seven in a row, came in 2007 with Eteu part of the coaching team that was furnished by Kenyan legend Smarts Olumbo.
He coached Warriors to their first title in 2009 and took Falcons to two further finals. Like many involved with the game locally, the pinnacle was 2014 when the national team – the Silverbacks – qualified for the first Afrobasket. Eteu was part of it all having first been made national coach in 2009.
“I knew it in 2014 that that was my last. When you decide to do something do it with your heart. I had lost the passion for it. I told some senior players that that was it,” he says.
That coincides with the transition from basketball to soccer and it’s ongoing.
At a glance
Gad Eteu
2001-2005: Makerere University – Degree in Environmental Management
2007: Uganda Management Institute – Certificate in Project Management and Monitoring
2005: Fiba Basketball coaching license.
2009 & 2011: Athletes in Action-USA Coaches Academy.
Training tours at University of Louisville, Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati, among others.
US Soccer and International Olympic Committee Training.
Will Peck Leadership Award winner of YMCA of Greater Indianapolis.
HONOURS
-Three-time National Championship coach (Falcons and Warriors)
- Two-time coach of the year.
- Five-time Uganda NBL League Finalist
About ICS
ISC is a public, charitable sports organisation that operates youth and adult soccer programmes focused on making a positive social impact both locally and internationally. ISC develops regional sports programmes that provide aid to children in less privileged parts of the world.
