BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson visited Wednesday with media members regarding his recent trip to South Africa as part of the TRIAD Trust Foundation.
TRIAD, which stands for Training to Reduce The Incidence of AIDS-Related Death, has been featured around the World Cup by national media in South Africa, including the New York Times and the ESPN series “Umlando, Through My Father’s Eyes” featuring ESPN’s Sal Masakela and his father, South African jazz music legend and activist Hugh Masakela.
Coach Johnson, who traveled to the Nkomazi Rush Mission, spent nearly 10 days teaching coaches and youngsters some of the fundamentals of the game as part of the mission’s goal to offer health and life skills education, employment opportunities and organized youth sports leagues.
All members must participate in free confidential and anonymous HIV testing, as well as the weekly health and life skills education program.
More information about TRIAD Trust can be found at www.TRIADtrust.org or on Facebook at TRIAD Trust. Here are some of Coach Johnson’s opening comments about his trip from Wednesday’s media session:
“Obviously for me, it is something I’m not very comfortable talking about because it’s really not a big deal to me. I was asked to contribute, to give so to speak, so I just tried to do my part. The people who are involved with the TRIAD Trust foundation, led by the leadership of Brooke Wurst and Sarah Kate Noftsinger, whom I happen to know. She was the assistant women’s soccer coach at Stanford and a Wake Forest graduate. She was actually real close to (New Orleans Hornets player) Chris Paul. They, along with the volunteers of the previous three years, have done an excellent job, so it was a unique experience for me.
“I guess the easiest way to articulate what I was doing was to have a classroom setting, if you can call it a classroom setting, with 15 area coaches and guys who aspire to be coaches from ages 19 through basically one, who was a 34-year-old teacher. We talked about the game of basketball and the tradition of the game of basketball, and they were like sponges. Then, in the afternoon we would go to — it would be an outdoor court with baskets that we had purchased. On any given day, 80 to 150 kids from the ages six through 13 would come and have stations to teach the game of basketball. We had a passing station, a shooting station, a dribbling station, a footwork station and a defensive station. The thing that was so impressive was the kids in general. Some had no shoes and no shirt, but just the joy and energy they had to play the game and to learn the game.
“I say this in all sincerity. When I talked to the team (Tuesday), I said, ‘Boy oh boy, don’t anyone of you guys breathe hard or complain about anything after where I just came from.’ But, it was refreshing. That’s pretty much it, and I’ll entertain any questions. It’s something that for me personally as much involvement as I’ve had through this game, I’ve been fortunate in terms of financial ramifications to be able to give over the years. I thought I had given, knew what it was like to give and share, but I didn’t. I do now though.
“But again, I want to make sure you guys understand that this is not a big deal to me. You know there are other people that do a lot more than I do, and I really am sort of shocked and caught off guard because I’m not one of these guys that gets caught up in all of this attention, so whatever you write or print, the people who need to be congratulated and are doing a lot of work are the people that are involved with TRIAD trust, and that’s Brooke Wurst and Sarah Kate Noftsinger.
“There was a young lady that’s actually from Episcopal High School who was here with us. Her name is Meghan O’Leary (of ESPN). I don’t know if any of you remember Megan, but she played softball and volleyball at Virginia. She was the Tom Jefferson scholar award winner. She was following us around because Sarah and her are close. It was neat.
“Some of the guys that passed the class, so to speak, had a certificate that said they passed the class. I’m going to stay in constant contact with them over this year and hopefully if things pan out I might have one or two of them come over and visit. I plan on being involved and moving forward as much as TRIAD Trust will have me.”
Coach Johnson also made the following comments regarding his team for the 2010-11 season.
On sharing his Africa experience with the current team …
“I met with our team because I wanted to share some of the experiences with them from the trip. I reminded them that the most important time to get better is what we’re doing right now. It’s going to take them taking a lot of ownership on themselves as a team and work extremely hard and challenge each other. Being able to show them a video of these kids and the things they don’t have it gives them an appreciation and hopefully sticks with them.”
On his early impressions of this year’s team …
“I think there’s an edge to them that I like, but it’s early. The new guys have only been here like a week. We’re healthy; there’s a good mixture of competition, which I really like. We just have to get through the summer and take care of our school work and continue to work. We have to remember to respect each other and respect the uniform and then we’ll have a fighting chance.”
On K.C. Ross-Miller …
“K.C. Ross-Miller is the only signee not here. He has some NCAA Clearinghouse issues right now and he’s not here. Darren Populist is the only walk-on we’ve kept on because of the point guard situation. K.C. will be here when the NCAA clears him to do so.”