The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games were a huge success over the summer, attracting an audience of over 2.4 million. Over 750,000 people visited the 9 free Festival Sites during the Commonwealth Games featuring over 200 events made by 82% of creatives from Birmingham and the West Midlands. 4 out of 5 people have commented how the festival has improved perceptions of our wonderful city.
Norman King, Head of Computing, at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys was lucky enough, after joining the 40,000 applicants, to be offered a voluntary Basketball role at Smithfields. Here, Norman speaks of his experiences during the games:
Having played basketball on both sides of the Atlantic, including attending High School and University in the United States via an athletic scholarship, I felt compelled to pay forward the remarkable opportunities that the sport of Basketball had provided to me during my formative years.
Consequently, I decided to join the 40,000 applicants and applied to be one of Birmingham’s 13,000 Commonwealth Games volunteers and be a small part of making its legacy – “The Games for everyone”, attainable.
I was delighted to be offered a voluntary basketball role at Smithfields, Birmingham.
3 x 3 basketball was making its inaugural appearance at the Commonwealth Games. This fast-paced, outdoor format of the game is played using one hoop, half-court, three players per side, one substitute, and a 12-second shot clock. Each match lasts for a maximum of ten minutes, with the team in the lead being the winner or the first team to score 21 points. My role as a Basketball Field of Play team member enabled me to have one of the best seats in the arena. Throughout my week I covered all things courtside; from ensuring that each team had access to warm-up facilities prior to each match, to liaising with the match officials, TV/media teams, making sure that each game started at the official time, to issuing the game ball at the start of each match.
I immensely enjoyed a rewarding and fulfilling seven days as a volunteer and my highlights included my frequent conversations with the Kenyan and Sri Lankan players as they practised for 30 minutes each day, to taking part in the team-building exercise “Helium Stick 1” with the England team at the end of a practice session.
It was a fitting finale to a remarkable competition to see England Men’s Basketball team win the gold medal for the very first time, with Birmingham-born team captain Myles Hesson, scoring the winning basket in a dramatic overtime victory against Australia 17 - 16.
I look forward to volunteering again in the near future and perhaps you might just see me again courtside at the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
