NKOSINATHI Festile’s childhood pastime has opened doors for him.
Festile started playing basketball at Elufefeni Primary School. He mentioned that he preferred playing soccer and cricket during his primary school years and only played basketball for fun, without knowing that he would become a national star one day.
Later, at Motherwell High School, Festile focused only on playing basketball. When asked why he lately chose basketball, he said that there were lots of opportunities.
His high school sports teacher, Pele Bonile, encouraged and motivated him to take basketball seriously.
His PE Comets Basketball Club coach, Sibongile Fondini, played a fundamental role in Festile’s development.
When he turned 13 in 2006, he was selected to play for Eastern Cape provincial team and they won the national championship in Cape Town.
Festile whose positions are point guard and shooting guard, said the Eastern Cape u-17 team lost to Western Cape in Durban in the finals in 2007, when he was the youngest player at the age of 14.
The following year, Festile and the team defeated Gauteng in the finals.
Festile represented South Africa in the Afro-Basket Zone 6 qualifiers in 2009 and they won games in Zimbabwe. Then they qualified to play in Mozambique in 2009.
He said, “We lost in the quarter-finals to Nigeria, who were taller [players] than us and had more exposure than we had to competitive games. We learnt a lot during these games.”
In June 2010, he was part of the South African u-18 side that played in the Three-On-Three FIBA Basket World Championships. In 2010 Festile played for South African u-18 team that competed in the tough Singapore Youth Olympic Games. He said that his team learnt a lot during those games.
In 2011, Festile was part of South Africa u-19 team, which took part in Basketball Without Borders Africa Camp, which had top 50 players around the continent. He said top NBA League players from America shared some skills with them.
Festile and the national team then toured Italy to compete in Three-On-Three FIBA World Championships, with the standard of the games being high, with South Africa defeating top sides including Russia, Croatia and Denmark.
In 2012, Festile left his home town to study a sports management diploma at Vaal University of Technology (VUT), which is known as the best basketball institution in South Africa. Festile said that youth should take sport seriously because he received a bursary because of his commitment to sport.
Festile said, “Playing sport seriously opens up some opportunities because I got a bursary to study at VUT.
“Now, I am a basketball coach at St Benedicts College.
“The youth must always focus on good things. Crime does not pay at all,” added Festile, who has won numerous basketball awards both as a child and as an adult.
