Top 25 high school basketballers honoured
The big news on the basketball beat this week is the much anticipated national high school championship games scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday at the Belize City Centre. And while the tournament signals the end of the high school season, some of the players won’t stop sweating for another week. Specially appointed committees have selected twenty-five players from high schools across the country to participate in the first annual “All High School Basketball Camp”. The lucky students are Stephen Williams, Andre Almendarez, Richard Troyer, Bernard Felix, Bejon Griffith, Lindsberg Graham, Ty Bradley, Neil Nicholson, Ronelle Lennon, Cecil Price, Douglas Langford, Egbert Walford and Michael Middleton all of the Belize District. From the north, are Dale Turner, Jaslyn Valero, Michael Diaz and Angelo Pasos. Representing the west are Najib Castellanos, Shannon Guzman, Joseph Bulwer and Heston Castillo while Garey Francisco, Eden Serano, Shawn Young and Devon King will suit up for the south. According to representatives from the Milton Palacio Pride Basketball camp and the Belize Basketball Federation, the camp is designed help the young players take their game to the next level.
Paul Flowers, P.R., Belize Basketball Federation
“One, we recognize that the national team is growing in stature in the region. We’re trying to go to the next level, but also realize that over the last four years, we’ve been pretty much recycling the same players. And you know, you got to plan, you’re cutting down the logwood, you have to replant. So what we want to do is teach the same program that the national team is running, the sets, the plays, the fundamentals…we want to teach that to the best high school players so that by the time they move to the next level, they already know the program and we can just continue our dominance in the region.”
Ty Bradley, Camp participant
“I’m just looking forward to enjoy myself. Just heng out with other guys weh know how fu play ball from the southside and the northside. I just happy I get pick same way, cause me from the southside and thing, nothing deh fu do really but just play ball and enjoy myself and try see if I could go somewhere de play ball, get wah scholarship or something.”
Training the players will be coaches Fred Garcia, Hugh Staine, Marshall Nunez and Clinton Lightburn. The camp is scheduled for December sixteenth to the twentieth. At the end of camp, the players will be divided into two teams to play in a “Glimpse of the Future” exhibition match-up. The showdown will be videotaped and according to Flowers, sent to schools abroad to assist in getting scholarships for the young men.
But back in Belize, local officials have decided that at the end of this basketball camp, one player will be conferred with the Joshua D. Usher Top player award, named for the late son of Mr. and Mrs. Marion Usher.
Paul Flowers
“Marion Usher is a stalwart in the basketball community. His contribution to basketball especially over the last five years, but throughout his career, he even played on the national team. His son was a decorated athlete, he was athlete of the year at S.J.C. and he went to nationals for both basketball and volleyball when he was a player. And he died, he was suddenly diagnosed in the prime in the youth. Over a three month period he was diagnosed and died. So we want to keep his memory alive by every year naming the top basketball player in the country after him.”
The recipient of the Joshua D. Usher award will take home a trophy, and a full tuition and book scholarship to any junior college in Belize. The award will be presented by the Usher family during half time of the “Glimpse of the Future” game.
