Nat’l Under-15 Male Basketball Team prepares for Centro Basket Tournament
The National Under-Fifteen Male Basketball Team is getting ready to head to Mexico for the Centro Basket Tournament. They’ve been preparing for at least nine months, but before they head north, the guys are testing their mettle against the Sacred Heart College under-eighteen team, who placed second at the CODICADER Games earlier this year. Mark Usher, the Public Relations Officer for the Belize Basketball Federation told News Five that they are holding a fundraiser on Saturday to help cover travelling expenses. And according to Usher, the federation believes the team is well prepared and ready to represent Belize.
Mark Usher, Public Relations Officer, Belize Basketball Federation
mark usher
“The U-15 male national team will go to Chiapas Mexico, where they will compete in the Centro Basket. You may recall that they recently came in second in the COCABA championships—I think it was in July—so now the next level is to go to Mexico in Chiapas and represent Belize at the Centro Basket tournament on the first to the sixth of November.”
Delahnie Bain
“And they have a game before they go against the Sacred Heart.”
Mark Usher
“Well, what you wanna do whenever you put together a national team you want to give them exhibition games. The federation has been trying to get teams from Mexico and the surrounding areas to come in and play, but you know the financial and other logistics. So the next best thing to do is to get games against local teams. They started a best of three series with the CODICADER champions, who is the Sacred Heart College boys team. They went and they came in second; they were the silver medalists in the CODICADER championships that was held in Guatemala. As you know, whenever a national team travels, there is tremendous costs and unfortunately it is not at the stage where the Government of Belize and the Ministry of Sports and whosoever is responsible meets the bill. So the federation said we can’t just sit down and wait, we have to get these kids out there and continue give them the opportunity by whatever means. So tomorrow we have a very ambitious plan. We want to try to sell a thousand plates of barbecue tomorrow.”
Usher says you can head out to the parking lot next to Smiling Meats on New Road anytime after ten a.m. The menu includes chicken, pork chops and ribs, t-bone and sirloin steak as well as sausages. He also encourages primary and high school students to support their peers in tonight’s exhibition game at the City Center.
