October 10, 2009

The Philadelphia Big 5 will be hosting some international guests in the next 10 days. Basketball national team coaches from five different countries will visit each of the schools to learn more about how they run their basketball programs.

The visiting coaches are participants in the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program (ICECP). The program invites international national-level coaches from a variety of sports to the US for an intense coaching education program.

National team coaches from American Samoa, Guam, Sierra Leone, Togo and Kiribati will make the trip to Philadelphia. From Sept 30-Oct 10, the coaches will observe practices and team workouts, shadow the coaching staffs and tour facilities of some college basketball’s finest programs.

The international coaches will visit the Villanova University, St. Joseph’s University, LaSalle University, University of Pennsylvania and Temple University basketball programs. They will also visit Drexel University’s program and attend a Philadelphia 76ers training camp session. (

ICECP program administrator Dr. Matt Robinson is excited for the ICECP basketball coaches to have the opportunity to do their apprenticeship with the Big 5.

“The coaching staffs and facilities at each of the Big 5 schools are all excellent. I know our participants are going to learn a ton and have a really great experience in Philadelphia,” Robinson said.

The trip represents the apprenticeship portion of ICECP. Participants head out to sport-specific apprenticeship sites for two weeks to work with leading collegiate and club programs in their respective sports.

During the six-week ICECP program, they also attend lectures, presentations and experiential learning sessions with subject experts in a variety of coaching education, sport science and sport management topics. ICECP is headed by the University of Delaware and the US Olympic Committee. It is funded by the IOC Olympic Solidarity program, which provides financial assistance to national Olympic committees around the world.

For more information about ICECP, to read program news stories or see participant pictures and blog entries, visit www.udel.edu/ICECP.

The mission of the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program is to provide national level coaches and those responsible for the development of the sport national coaching structures in developing countries with a practical program orientated towards developing proficiency in the technical, theoretical, conceptual, managerial and ethical aspects of coaching at all levels of competition.