Ruben Baldacchino, ther national youth basketball coach attended the International Coaching Apprenticeship in October and November after he was awarded a scholarship by FIBA and the International Olympic Committee through the Olympic Solidarity Fund.
He was selected together with another 5 coaches from around the world from Europe and Asia. He attended at the University of Delaware with lectures on the American Intercollegiate Sport Environment, American Basketball Development Model, Basketball Performance Analysis and evaluation; Personal and Team Development Planning; Athlete Development and Talent Identification; Management and Leadership of a Team and Program.
After finishing these modules, he was assigned at the University of Temple where he spent 4 weeks within a professional setup which is also a top College team in the USA.
During his stay at the University of Temple, he had the opportunity to work and learn from Head Coach Fran Dunphy, one of the most famous College Basketball Head Coaches at NCAA Division 1, who has over 540 wins making him the fifth most winning coach.
At the University of Temple, Baldacchino worked with Aaron Mckie who is an ex NBA player (Best 6th man in 2000-1 season) and also an ex-Philadelphia Sixers coach.
During his stay Baldacchino had the opportunity to taste the highest level of competition at NCAA Division 1 and learn from some of the best coaches in the world.
At the University of Temple he managed to meet various important people in the game of basketball such as Seth Berger (AND 1 creator and head coach of West Town High School), various NBA scouts and ex-NBA and European professional players.
In the last part of the course Baldacchino was a special guest of the Philadelphia 76ers and Washington Wizards. At Washington, he had the opportunity to visit the facilities and had a meeting with Tommy Sheppard, senior vice-president of the Washington Wizards. Baldacchino managed to pass all his exams and assignments, and was awarded the highest recognition in basketball coaching, the International Coaching Apprenticeship Scholarship from the University of Delaware and FIBA under the guidance of Dr Matthew Robinson and Prof. Jeff Schneider.
Baldacchino is the only Maltese coach who managed to obtain the highest level in basketball coaching (ICAB) after he had already completed the FIBA European Coaching Certificate in 2015.
Last summer he won the bronze medal at the FIBA U-18 European Championships that were held in Cyprus. Currently he is Head Coach of the U-16 national men's team.
This opportunity was made available through the support of the Malta Basketball Association and the Malta Olympic Committee.