Teacher fosters women's basketball success

Zhang Jinhua, 62, coach of the women's basketball team of Tongren Minzu Middle School in Southwest China's Guizhou province, has been committed to helping girls from ethnic and mountainous regions achieve their university and basketball dreams.

After graduation from university in 1982, Zhang was employed as a physical education teacher at the No 3 Middle School in Tongren, now the junior branch of Tongren Minzu Middle School. As the only one with a bachelor's degree in PE, Zhang was appointed head of the teaching group in the first year. But back then, he was a stranger to basketball.

The school had a men's basketball team and employed a teacher from a sports school as coach. Since the men's competition was more intense and professional, and he did not know much about basketball coaching at the time, he could only help train the women's team, Zhang recalls.

When the women's team was set up, things were not easy. There were only seven girls playing basketball and Zhang, who specialized in track and field, had to spend a lot of time improving his knowledge of basketball training.

Zhang and the girls trained hard, and soon, teachers and students saw great improvement in the team, which attracted more students to join.