Nat’l Basketball Team prepares for C.A. Games
The last time the Belize National Basketball Team took to the court they were eliminated by Barbados, albeit with a good measure of help from officials. Next week the venue will shift from the Caribbean to the Central American Games in Guatemala. News 5’s Janelle Chanona caught up with the squad at their final workout in Belize City.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning the screech of sneakers, the thumping of a ball on hardwood and the sharp burst of a whistle filled the confines of the Belize City Centre as the top twelve Belizean players prepare for the Central American Games in Guatemala.
By Belizean standards, the team has had plenty of time to prepare, and the coaching staff hopes the chemistry of both local heroes and Belize American athletes will bring home gold.
Kevin Seroki, Coach
“I give the guys who have been down here a lot of credit, because a lot of people have said that we haven’t been practising, but we’ve been practising and I give these guys a lot of credit. We’ve put a lot of stuff in with guys who come down from the States, they’ve been through this stuff already, so they’ve mixed in real well with all the guys. It’s a great thing seeing a team come together as a unit. I’m excited, I’ve got goose bumps right now.”
Keith Acosta
“Mr. Sonny Watson basically he’s a good player and he knows how to blend in real well, so how it looks right now, we really do look comfortable together and we kind of gel.”
Alex Carcamo
“We probably might go in as one of the smallest teams even though we have some tall players, but we’ll have the quickest.”
While the plan is to dominate the court with athleticism, the team is convinced size won’t matter as they plan to get aggressive with the ball.
Darwin Carter
“Kevin’s game is structured to the offence and everything, and the guys like Alex, Leon and Keith, those are athletic guys, they can run the court pretty good. So I figure in the Central American Games, we can get to push the ball a little bit because those guys will be jumping up and down the floor.”
Kevin Seroki
“Look at our size though, we got Sonny Watson, Two Tall, they’re both six, eleven. We’ve got Shabba, Englebert Cherrington, so we’re big, we’re definitely big. Everyone says Belize is always small, but that’s not the case this time.”
Janelle Chanona
“Are we gonna make sure that we’re pushing an aggressive game, given our size?”
Kevin Seroki
“Defnitely. Even though we got Too Tall and Sonny who we think are six, eleven, but they’re athletic also, so they can run up and down the floor. So we’re gonna press a little bit and we need to get the other teams up and down the floor so we take advantage of our guards, because we have quicker guards.”
Keith Acosta
“Basically our game is an uptempo type game and we look to push it on the teams and we look to get up and down on the floor and hopefully the better team wins.”
When the ball goes up at the tip off, the coaches will be counting on players like Kirk “Shabba” Smith to be a formidable post, Ian “A.C.” Augustine a strong forward and Roger Favela to sink shots from the three. The man slated to run the court in Guatemala City will be Darwin Carter, but no player has been cemented in any position.
Darwin Carter
“The team is very versatile. We got players that can switch positions around and play different positions. So with the Dwight in it will make a big difference too and everybody will be in a stable position. But without Dwight we’re very versatile, so we can still do it as well.”
Kevin Seroki
“It is all about effort, diving for loose balls, coming together as a team. We’re going to play a lot of positions by committee, meaning we’re going to have a lot of guys playing different positions. Maybe not use to them, but maybe people think that just because they’ve never played that position before, maybe they have played that position before, maybe people don’t realise it. So we’re going to play a lot of positions as a committee and like I said, we’re don’t have one superstar, we have a lot of good team players. So I think all these guys believe in that and that’s what we’re gonna work at.”
Alex Carcamo
“Defence, defence to win this ballgame. We can all put up points on the board, but we’ve got to play defence.”
An interesting sidebar to Carcamo’s presence is that when he signed his contract with his team in Beijing, he made sure he would be able to play in this tournament.
Alex Carcamo
“It’s my country. Just cause I’m not from here, my father and my mom are from here, so I consider myself a Belizean also.”
Janelle Chanona
“Was it difficult getting that clause into your contract?”
Alex Carcamo
“Not really, I just told my coaches that a national game was coming up, soon, and they respect that fact that I’m playing for my national team, so they allowed me to come over here.”
Janelle Chanona
“So what it’s like working with this team going into the games?”
Alex Carcamo
“We all know each other pretty much, we got some new faces, but for the most part we should do fairly well. We’re playing together, there’s no real superstar on the team this time, so I think that’ll make everybody step their game up a lot more.”
No matter which players make up the fantastic five at the final buzzer, there’s no doubt the Belizeans would have left their mark on the Central American court.
Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona
The team leaves Belize on Thursday.
