Basketball seeks funding for next journey
We heard from National Basketball Team member Keith Acosta last night on Sports Monday, and today his team mates held a press conference to give a full account of their performance in San Salvador. News 5’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
While the team gave a good account of themselves, earning a bronze medal, the consensus is that lack of funds for this particular tournament prevented our team from doing better. Team coach, Fred Garcia, believes the National Team’s success is everybody’s business.
Fred Garcia, Coach, Belize Natl. Basketball Team
“I really believe its a government initiative first, get the private sector together second, and then here comes the basketball court, track, football whatever, third to say this is what we need. If we get it in those areas in that order, I think this thing could go a long way. So I think it’s important that the people out there listening and understanding where we’re coming from. Yes we want to bring gold, but if you treat us like bronze, then bronze you should expect. That’s just the bottom line.”
Those were also the sentiments of one of the youngest players on the team, Mark Bainton
Mark Bainton, Belize Natl. Basketball Team
“We need more practice in Belize. We need some trainers, we need to be together as one, and we need to work harder, man.”
President of the Belize Basketball Federation, Bernard Wagner, says while the B.B.F. does not want to jeopardize the success of semi-pro basketball, semi-pro sponsors may want to consider pitching in.
Bernard Wagner, Pres., Belize Basketball Federation
“Some of the sponsors that sponsor these teams could probably channel some of the funding to the national programme.”
Marion Ali
“And how willing are they to do this?”
Bernard Wagner
“Well we haven’t sit at any table to talk about this. It’s just an idea being tossed about, we don’t know what will be the outcome, but the National Team programme is the programme that has breed success in our country and has made Belize recognized throughout the region. Whenever our team goes to these international tournaments they are treated with a lot of respect.”
Reporting for News 5, Marion Ali.
And keeping that respect alive is what those in the business want for Belize when our guys play in their next tournament, scheduled for April in Nicaragua. That competition is the second largest in the Americas and will feature teams from the Caribbean as well as Mexico and Venezuela. To adequately prepare, officials estimate that the expenses would be in excess of a hundred thousand dollars.
