South Sudan is Prominently Represented in our Boys Basketball Team
By Michael Clarkson
South Sudan has come to southern Niagara. Five players of South Sudanese heritage are on the FEIA boys’ basketball team.
Their families fled the 2013-2018 civil war in that nation, including that of Ajak Aguer Akech, whose father, Aguer, died from injuries suffered as a soldier in the conflict.
“I was only six at the time and my mother (Alaakiir) has filled me in on what happened,” he said as the Falcons prepare to defend their Ontario championship. “Mom is still back in Africa and she depends on me.”
After his father was killed, the family moved to Kenya, where Ajak learned to play basketball in youth camps. Through contacts he met there, he was encouraged to move last year to Cobourg, Ontario, where he played for William Academy.
As he grew to a lean 7-feet tall, Ajak captured the attention of Canadian coaches and he is now in his rookie season at FEIA. At age 18, he’s a good defensive player and a work-in-progress offensively, but is determined and coach Kemy Osse expects him to quickly improve.
“I was looking for a good opportunity in basketball and in a school,” said Akech, who is eventually looking for a university scholarship and a career in engineering or economy.
FEIA associate coach Steve Houston, considered one of the top big-man mentors in the country, believes Ajak “has the potential to go as far as he wants (in basketball).”
One of the players Akech has bonded with at FEIA is Canada’s No. 1 ranked high school player, 6-foot-8 Deng Ngnor, whose family fled the Sudan conflict along with more than 20,000 orphaned and displaced people. They wound up in Alberta. Deng was being courted by dozens of NCAA Division 1 universities until he decided upon Ohio State University, where he will attend next season.
“Dad and Mom fled by foot to Uganda to get away from the war,” Deng said. “They were in a refugee camp for two years before they moved to Alberta. I think I try harder because of what my family went through.”
Over the years, Canada has accepted thousands of refugees from the civil wars in that country.
Deng’s younger brother, Awan, a good outside shooter, recently joined the program but will likely play for FEIA’s second team.
The two other Sudanese Falcons, Athian Madut and Totu Akuetok, are second-generation Canadians recruited to FEIA by Osse and his assistants, who travel across North America for games and scouting players.
“We’re glad to have them. They’re great kids and hard workers,” said Osse.
“We got to know one another (through basketball circles),” said Athian Madet, a rookie who recently lived in Calgary and is a cousin to the Ngors. “Deng, Totu and I go way back.”
The rest of the FEIA roster is cosmopolitan with Joao Aguilera from Brazil, Lucas Zhong and Xu Oubre ( China), Pierre Charles Yimga and Grady Kapuanya (Montreal), Gael Bilodeau (Quebec City), Junior Jean-Marie and Nolan Diba (Ottawa), Amari Upshaw (Halifax), K’Vontae Walters (Toronto), and Joel Campbell (Brampton).
The Falcons opened their season with a 2-0 record on Sept. 12-13 in tournament in Montreal for college and university scouts.
