Nana Yaw Update

Well, Nana Yaw finally gets to play in his first ‘home’ tournament this weekend as All Iowa Attack hosts the USSSA Midwest Festival of Teams at the Ankeny facility! Nana Yaw has endured quite a grueling travel schedule over the past couple of weeks. So far he has been to Wisconsin, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kansas, and Minnesota for tournaments. Yowza!

I think I’ve mentioned on here before that Nana Yaw is applying for a student visa. Currently he is visiting the U.S. on a type of visitor’s visa. Originally when he came here Nana Yaw did not intend to do any sort of schooling here, in fact he has already graduated from highschool in Ghana. However, since coming, an opportunity has presented itself for Nana Yaw to attend Des Moines Christian High School for 1 year. Jake’s Kingdom Hoops Foundation will offer Nana Yaw a scholarship to attend school and will also cover his living expenses while he is here. Jake is currently working on setting up an international hosting program to offer this sort of opportunity to others like Nana Yaw….Jake has had so many other kids contact him that would like to come to the U.S. Of course there are lots of restrictions, criteria, and legal things that have to be worked out to start this up, and you guessed it, Jake is on it! He has hired lawyers that specialize in this sort of thing, and I am sure it won’t be too long before I am writing a post with details about how YOU can host an international student in your home! :) Trust me, we alone do not have enough rooms in our house for all the people that Jake wants to help! :) The great thing is that there have also been a few corporations that have stepped in to donate to the Kingdom Hoops Foundation soley for the purpose of their money going towards the hosting program. It would be great if the Kingdom Hoops Foundation could cover all living expenses for the students so that finances would not be a limitation to those who want to host a student. Jake is also working with another private school in the Des Moines area that has proposed to accept students that would come to the U.S. through this hosting program. So, great things are happening in developing a hosting program and I will have to keep you updated.

Anyways, back to Nana Yaw….so, we are still filling out paperwork for the student visa, and then we will be waiting on his final approval for the visa. Of course we know firsthand that nothing is set in stone until we have his approval, but it certainly is exciting to think about! Nana Yaw will be attending team camp with the Des Moines Christian team in June to get his feet wet and get some experience with the team that he would be playing on come fall. I can’t even imagine how much fun it will be to get to go to his highschool games this winter….I think I might actually look forward to winter then!

So, that’s the scoop! If you will be in the Ankeny area this weekend think about stopping by the Kingdom Hoops facility and taking in a few games! You will find the schedule for the tournament at http://www.alliowaattack.com/ Once there click on ‘parent’, then ‘hosted events’, then USSSA Midwest Festival of Teams. Then scroll down and click on ‘schedule’ which is in blue at the bottom. Here you will find a playing schedule for all the teams. Nana Yaw’s team will be listed on the 17U/11th grade boys schedule and he is on All Iowa Attack Black.