…And Sports Council Executive Director responds

Tomorrow the Ministry of Sports will break ground for the phase one of the reconstruction of the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. During halftime our correspondent in Cancun, Ava Lovell, caught up with National Sports Council Executive Director, Anthony Michael and asked about developmental plans for basketball in Belize.

Anthony Michael, Executive Director, National Sports Council
“I want to tell the nation, I’m seeing these guys for the first time out here on the court. These guys are dedicated Belizeans playing their heart out. Some of them are hurt, some of them got scars but they are playing their heart out for this flag. It’s all about our flag, Ava. If you look at the minister right now, he is draped in a Belizean flag. The emotion coming out here today, the Belizeans—we have about eighty percent of the fans out here today of Belize supporting our team. And these guys are making Belize very proud. We are not only developing and we don’t only have plans for the City Center; we are looking at getting a new court, we are trying to fix the leaking at City Center. We are also looking at sports in general. We have planted grass out at Roger’s Stadium for softball, putting up new lights and equipping all our stadiums with lights and bathroom facilities and fixing up sports on a whole. We’ve been launching the opening of the Marion Jones Sporting Complex on Monday at two p.m., which all the media and yourself will be invited to unveil the new Marion Jones. A lot of people said there would be a lot of groundbreaking, but the construction will commence immediately. It won’t be a steal structure, it will be concrete to prevent less maintenance and erosion and stuff like that. So sports in general—from the mere fact that Minster of Sports, Elvin Penner and myself, as the executive director, is out here today is to support our nation and support sports and to send a signal to Belize that sports is back in Belize once and for all.”