Tryouts for Men’s National Basketball Team to the D.R.

This week’s I.B.L. matches are scheduled for this Thursday, Friday, and Sunday inside the Mexico Center. And to more basketball news, an open men national team basketball tryout was held on Sunday at the Belize Civic Center. The tryout was hosted to select a national team to compete in the upcoming FIBA 2023 United Cup in the Dominican Republic. We spoke with the organizers of that event about the tryouts.

Rodvell Gladden

Rodvell Gladden, Basketball Coach

“Basically we have an international coach that came in to recruit guys to take them to the Dominican Republic to play for a cup. He is here today and I believe we have a good turnout of like eighty players. We are looking g for fifteen guys to take to the Dominican Republic to participate in this tournament.”

Jacob Leslie

Jacob Leslie, President, Belize Basketball Federation

“I think it is very important because what we are trying to do is do things differently than how it is done. Back in the days when we did national team tryouts it use to be my special invite. Unless you are invited you couldn’t have an opportunity. So, since this federation took over we are trying to do it differently. We didn’t want to exclude anyone. So, we had open tryouts where anyone can come out, impress the coaches and get an opportunity to represent the country. I am surprised by the amount of young players that are here. Usually when you have senior national team you have older players. We have the regular players, the Coope, and the France, and the people you expect, but many of the players here are twenty-one and under. It is a good thing and a bad thing. It is a good thing because we can identify these talents and continue develops them. It is to make sure they are prepared at this stage to compete at the highest level.”

Travis McAvene

Travis McAvene, Head Coach, Team Belize

“Today is the first day I am getting the chance to evaluate some of the local professional players and some of the younger talent and my job is to get the best neuclius of players that I can find to compete, because we are going to see professional teams in the Dr, Costa Rica’s National Team will be there, we will have a couple of American teams, so there will be six to eight quality teams that will be on the professional level that these guys will get to compete against in January.”