Basketball Teams Head to Cancun for Hoops on the Beach Tournament

A team of thirty-six young male basketball athletes, five coaches and chaperones left Belize this morning en route to Cancun, Mexico for an international basketball tournament. The players were recruited from a list of ballers from the Ahmadiyya Basketball League and a team of ten from Punta Gorda joins them to compete in the four-day tournament in the U-fifteen, U-seventeen and U-nineteen categories. The U-nineteen team returns to Cancun to defend its title in the competition called Hoops on the Beach.  News Five caught up with the delegation before their departure to Mexico today and found out that the team is prepared and ready to bring back gold.

Naveed Mangla

Naveed Mangla, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, Belize

“We have been invited to a tournament in Cancun called Hoops on the Beach, so we are taking after training and workout and tryouts for one month, we believe that we are taking the best youth that we can find under the categories of U-nineteen, seventeen and fifteen. There are thirty-two players and five coaches. We stay there for four days, compete in the tournament and come back on Sunday or Monday.”

Paul Flowers

Paul Flowers, 18-Years-Old Basketballer

“From I was eight years old, I’ve been with a ball in my hand. I basically grew up with my dad teaching me and then bulldogs and now Ahmadiyya is taking me around the country. Actually the light and peace also took a team to Cleveland in which I was blessed to go with some of my friends. So it has been a blessing working hard and playing the sport that I love. Going around the world and representing my country.”

Evan Vernon

Evan Vernon, 14-Year-Old Basketballer

“I started to play basketball from I was eight years old and my expectation is to go out there and bring back a win for Toledo and my country Belize.”

Nicholas Phillips, 19-Years-Old Basketballer

“This year, I’m playing with players from the U-seventeen coming into the U-nineteen so I don’t find it as that much of a challenge because I’ve known them for a while and I know their game inside and out. But to be honest this year, the workouts were not as pretty as last year’s workout. But to be honest, all the mistakes we made in practice benefits us in the end because we know what to do and what not to do when we are out there.”

Nicholas Phillips

Duane Moody

“Who is the team that is the strongest that you have to mash. What’s your competition looking like?”

Nicholas Phillips

“To be honest, I fear no one because all of them put their shoes on the same way we do. And to be honest, I would like to play the team from the U.S. That’s the main team I am looking forward to; I’m not really worried about the others. I believe they are the ones who are really going to test us and see how far we can go.”