Team Belize works out for C.A. and Caribbean Games

Good evening, I’m James Adderley and yes this is yet another serving of Sports Monday. The final push for Belize’s participation in the eighteenth Central American and Caribbean Games is currently underway and so we decided to check in yesterday at the City Centre where the national male basketball team of Belize was working up a sweat.

First thing though people, we find only six players at this session with only nine days to go before boarding the plane for Maracaibo, Venezuela. Under the gaze of the coach it’s Milton Palacio, Olin Simpliss and Kent Bennett running against Fred Garcia, Dwight Myvette and Cassion Aguet. Of course coach Greenwood demonstrates what kind of moment he expects on both offense and defense. But incidentally, who are Myvette and Aguet? Well you should know Dwight Myvette a former semi-pro basketballer in Belize who recently played at Korea.

Q: “Dwight, how do you feel being on the national basketball team of Belize heading to Venezuela?”

Dwight Myvette

“It’s a good feeling: going to another country, representing your country and trying to play it down. I am from Belize, representing Belize and I want to go to Venezuela and win and put Belize on the map.”

Now Belize, meet Cassion Aguet from Los Angeles making his first appearance on the national team of Belize.

Q: “Looking at the Central American and Caribbean Games, you’re gonna meet big teams like Puerto Rico, Mexico, what legitimately are our chances of being able to pick up a medal at least?”

Cassion Aguet

“You know, I think fi we chances good yuh noh, because if we play like dem bwai play ina CARICOM Game, if we run di ball wid fi we strength and we run di ball right and if we run di ball I think we could dig wid anyone a dehn team deh.”

Q: “Do you feel great privilege to represent your team, your country?”

Cassion Aguet

“Definitely, as soon as ah step off a di plane ah feel it.”

Q: “So you have no problem in being the best that you can be in this particular competition?”

Cassion Aguet

“No problem; I tek dis to heart. Ah di play fi mi country, right and ah tek it to heart.”

And folks of course you know Milton Palacio who lead us to gold in the City Centre CARICOM Basketball Championships. Well, he’s back for more.

Milton Palacio

“Well definitely I will make an adjustment; I think my game will go another level higher. I watch the tapes a lot and I just criticize myself a lot and I think you will see a harder player out there. I think I did fairly well in CARICOM Tournament, not what I wanted to do, but now I’m adjusting my game to play a lot more harder.”

Q: “We know you don’t have a crystal ball but from what you see out there give us and educated guess as to our chances of at least getting a medal.”

Milton Palacio

“The chances are great. I feel that any given team can be beaten on any different night. You have these teams over there that have been together for 2, 3 maybe 5 years, but we’ve been together for a little while, but I think we are a talented bunch. And I think we will go out there and play together and play hard. We’ll go out there and win a couple of victories and see what the outcome is.”

Q: “From what we got together, how does it look to you medal wise?”

Olin Simpliss

“Oh men, I’m always confident; I am the most confident ball player. I think we gonna win gold, no, I know we gonna win gold, put it like that. We got solid guards and we got a couple of big kids I know pretty well coming in.”

Kent Bennett

“We got four more players that will help us when the guards get tired. We have renewed stronger guards coming in and everybody appears to be more focussed and ready for the games in Venezuela.”

Q: “Kent, you were plagued by a bit of knee injury the last outing, how is that front?”

Kent Bennett

“I had 3 weeks of rest and ice and a lot of medication. I feel great.”

Nevertheless folks, there’s only six players working out and by any standards that’s unacceptable, so here’s head coach David Greenwood to articulate his reaction.

David Greenwood, Coach

“We have a gentleman, 6’9” coming in, Kenny Jordan from Puerto Rico. He’s over in Puerto Rico right now and he’s gonna be here on Tuesday. We’re gonna have “Shabba” come in on Tuesday; he’s gonna be coming back here and then we have Burton Anderson an in between 6’6″ and 6’4″ coming in from southern Illinois. He’s gonna be in about the fourth. We have Alex Carcamo, who’s coming back, so we look small now but in four, five days we’ll be in pretty good shape.”

This picture shows unity and determination but it also says we’re short of quite a few players right now. With 4 or 5 players still to arrive from the U.S. we’re certain we’ll have a team that does show and display it has a shot at a medal at Venezuela. But will Belize be fielding Claude “Too Tall” Jones and Keith Acosta? Well we’ll just have to wait and see.

That’s our show for today. We invite you back same time, same place next week. I’m James Adderley. Jah over all.