A Comprehensive Look at the Weekend’s Sporting Activities
Goodnight and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Isani Cayetano. We kick things off tonight with a look at this weekend’s National Primary School Volleyball Championships where San Marcus R.C. School dominated the competition to place first in the tournament in the male division. The San Marcus boys won the best of three sets at twenty-five to eighteen, seventeen to twenty-five and fifteen to eleven, respectively. Coming in at second place was Holy Redeemer Primary. The Most Valuable Player in the Male category went to Brandon Quintanilla.
In the female tourney, Holy Redeemer defeated Toledo Christian Academy in two sets to become the 2023 National Primary School Volleyball Champions. In those games, Holy Redeemer bested their opponents by scores of twenty-five to nine and twenty-five to twenty, in turn. Shanniel Flores of Toledo Christian Academy was selected as Female MVP. To these young athletes, we say congratulations on a job well done.
Turning to B.E.B.L action. On Friday night at the Civic Center in Belize City, the Benny’s Belize Hurricanes and the Belize City Defenders faced in a highly anticipated match where the Defenders outgunned the Hurricanes with a final score of seventy-five to sixty-six. Dropping twenty-seven points to seal the deal in two hours and five minutes of play time was Lorenzo Dillard.
But what’s a sport without a little controversy? Seven weeks into the closing season of the Premier League of Belize and there is tension brewing in the league. The Port Loyola Football Club has publicly declared its objections to a recent ruling by the Football Federation of Belize Appeals Committee on the eligibility of one of its foreign players. There is quite a bit to discuss where this matter is concerned. Let us begin with the Appeals Committee’s decision. Following a January twentieth match between Port Loyola FC and Verdes FC in which Port Loyola FC emerged victorious, Verdes FC objected to their opponent’s decision to field Argentinean Jonathon Moschini in the match on grounds of ineligibility. The protest was taken to the league’s disciplinary committee which ruled in favor of Port Loyola FC. Verdes then launched an appeal with the FFB Appeals Committee. They met and ruled that the decision of the disciplinary committee is null and void because the matter is not of a disciplinary nature. They then ruled in favor of Verdes FC. As a result, Port lost three points from their season score. Three points were instead awarded to Verdes. So, who is Jonathon Moschini and why is Port Loyola FC protesting the decision of the Appeal’s Committee? We spoke with Leaton St. Clair, the Manager of Port Loyola Football Club for some answers.
Leaton St. Clair
On the phone: Leaton St. Clair, Manager, Port Loyola FC
“When we attempted to do that the director of competitions from FFB informed us that we need an ITC which is an international transfer certificate. Upon checking with my owner we didn’t have a TMC manager. A TMC manager facilitates the ITC which has a profile to go on a platform and get the ITC. It came to about two weeks and we didn’t get any assistance from the federation. My owner reached out to a partner, Mr. Kenneth Budna who is the manager of the Belmopan Bandits. He is a colleague and participated in PLB. We asked him to assist us getting the ITC. Mr. Budna applied for the ITC through the same TMS Manager he has, platform. He got it in one day process. It simply says that the player Jonathon is transferring from the Nicaraguan Football Federation to the Belize Federation. Upon receiving all information the Director of Competition from FFB approve the request to register the player, approved and granted the player a FIFA player ID. The day of the match the player was already on the system as a valid legal player, eligible to play. The three points is a lot. In PLB the three points is a lot. Three points plays a role in standings which we would have been on top of the league. We recently beat the number one team. We were tied with San Pedro. We drawed our last game and San Pedro went up on us, two points. So, when we defeated San Pedro we went above San Pedro with fourteen points. So, taking away those three points brought us back down to eleven points, which brought Verdes to eleven points also.”
And finally, the National Powerlifting Championships were also held this weekend in Belize City at the SJC Gymnasium. There were eight powerlifting weight classes for both male and female categories. First place in the f3 kilos sub junior category went to Mikhail Matus, while second place went to Jahmai Sho. In the female category for the fifty-two kilo weight class was Shakira Tsai. Kaeli Burgess placed second. Overall winners in the tournament for the male category are: Rayford Brown, first place; Kenyon Wright, second place; and William Murillo at third place. For the women, Mary Gonzalez placed, first while Edith Ruiz and Joylyne Smith came in second and third, respectively.
We’d like to say thanks to freelance sports reporter William Ysaguirre for assistance us with footage and stats from this weekend’s activities. That does it for tonight’s edition of Sports Monday.
