National Basketball Team ready to defend title
Good evening I’m James Adderly and you’re locked into this monster ride on Sports Monday. With our National Basketball Team in final preparation for the 15th CARICOM Basketball Championships at Barbados, we visited camp at the City Centre this morning.
“And yes people, Olin Simpliss goes baseline, deals to Keith Acosta, who slams over Claude “Too Tall” Jones”
Well it’s not the real thing yet Belize, that comes up on July 2nd at Barbados and BNBA President Glenn Tillett shared the team’s travel plans with us.
Glenn Tillett, President, BNBA
“Travel plans calls for us to leave around midnight Friday night. We will take the bus to Cancun; fly Cancun to Miami and Miami to Barbados. We are doing it that way to ensure that our travel is almost straight through, even though we have to make a couple of changes and there won’t be much by way of delay. This way, we won’t have to overnight in Miami or any other place. We are certain that this way we are going to get to Barbados sometime around 3 or 4 o’clock their time. So it will give us time to settle in, shoot around on the court, get comfortable, get a goodnight’s sleep and be ready to play St. Kitts at 2 o’clock the following day.”
Belize goes into Barbados as the defending champion and our very own Milton Palacio from the NBA was a big part of that success; only he won’t be available this time around.
Paul Flowers
“Well something really good happened for him just last night which is kinda bad for the nation. Apparently, there is a team who is expecting to get a point guard in the draft, but the situation is that the pre-draft, that ESPN did has put the team a little bit out of the reach of the top point guards that are out there, so the team has contacted his agent. The draft is Wednesday and basically they have said that when the draft time comes, the point guard that they are after is gone, they want him to be in their facility on the very next day, which is Thursday. He doesn’t want the impression to be presented that he is dogging the country and it is something that Milton is very upset about. I spoke to him extensively last night and I promised him that the Belizean people are aware of his situation”
Ron Abegglen, Head Coach, Belize National Team
“We’ve got the team narrowed down to probably eleven or twelve players at this point in time. We are looking forward to Sunday where we have our first competition over in Barbados. I think the competition will be really really good, but I think these guys are working hard, they are determined to defend the championship. We have a lot of nice players and I think they are working hard and we will; be very competitive.”
James Adderly
“Speaking of work hard coach, we only saw eleven players at this morning’s workout session. The numbers don’t add up.”
Ron Abegglen
“We’ve got eleven, we are looking at possibly one or two players coming in this week and take a look at them. We may go over to the tournament with just eleven, maybe ten guys.”
James Adderly
“So this is the nucleus of the team right here we are seeing, in effect I’m taking away the guess work?”
Ron Abegglen
“Yeah, we’re taking this group over for sure and there is one more guy that we like, Englebert Cherrington. We like him, if we have a spot, we would like to take a young guy like Englebert because he has a chance of being very good down the road.”
James Adderly
“Your biggest problem, is it logistics, is it discipline or is it just the shortage of time to get what you want done?”
Ron Abegglen
“The sort period of time to get everything that you need to have, to be perfect, to have a good game. Fundamentals need a lot of work, but we only have one more week. The shooting, probably the biggest concern for me right now is the shooting from the total team. There are a few good shooters, probably Alex Carcamo has proven to be the best shooter on the team at this point in time.”
One of the players, who will have to bear the load, is Keith Acosta.
Keith Acosta, Belize National Team
“Right now we are trying our very best to repeat as champions. We know that everybody is going to be after our heads, so we gotta go out there, go out there real strong. I think that we are more focused going into this game knowing that we are the defending champions. Right now we are really preparing ourselves well.”
Alex Carcamo, Belize National Team
“It’s going well right now, everybody seems to be coming to practice on time and giving an hundred and ten percent everyday. So we have a little bit of injuries, but by the time tournament time comes we should all be healthy.”
James Adderly
“How is this game different from the last one?”
Alex Carcamo
“Well we are not pressured into going two days into the tournament. We are all out here, we’ve been going at it for three weeks, so by the time we get out there, we should know the place, we should be able to execute.”
James Adderly
“What’s your gut feeling as a competitor, as a Belizean and also as president of the BNBA on our ability to return with the gold medal that we’re taking in?”
Glenn Tillett
“It’s going to be difficult. We are playing nine other teams; we are in the division that has the strongest teams, mainly the Bahamas, Trinidad and the US Virgin Islands. I believe that if we can win three of our games in that division, we should make the playoffs.”
Belize, our team leaves for Barbados on Friday and we aspire for yet another gold. We certainly wish our team maximum success inside Barbados.
In other basketball news, the National Junior Basketball Team of Belize was truly impressive at the Quadrangular at Cancun, Mexico, over the weekend, where they swept all comers. In game one, Chaka Lightburn goes baseline for two of his game high seventeen points. Here’s Deondre Head, breaking away for the slam, he would finish with fourteen points. Belize takes game one on the host team Cancun 91-63.
Meanwhile, Englebert Cherrington emerged to be the big man in game two for Belize and here he goes inside for two of his game high eighteen points. Belize would go on to post an 88-50 big W over Dorados of Playa del Carmen.
In game three, Belize knocked off Chetumal 90-62 thanks to a 23-point output from Chaka Lightburn, who delivers two in heavy traffic right here. Congratulations to head coach Matthew Smiling and the National Junior Team of Belize.
Turning to the football scene, there is an excitement building out West as a legitimate link to international under nineteen soccer play has been established in the Cayo District, at least for this year and we are at Sunday’s training camp.
Hernan Contreras, Cayo U-19 Coach
“It’s an idea that came out of Jorge Garcia and Dan Bernoshe, an American guy who was vice principal and taught here at Mount Carmel High School for two years. He was also the head coach for that school. When he went back to the US, he always had this great idea of taking U-19 team students most of all, who would have opportunities for further studies in the US. So he made contact with the USA Cup, which is held every year at Blaine, Minnesota. This year we got accepted and we got and invitation from them. We raised the necessary funds to take a team up to the US.”
Dan Bernoshe, Founder, Belize Youth Soccer
“I actually got the passion to do this when I was here in Belize from 1994-96 and I met Jorge Garcia and a few other key members of the church and staff and I saw the tremendous talent here in Belize that no one is getting an opportunity to see. So in order to help the sport of football and education, in the United States, I have been linking up with the USA Cup in Minnesota where we can create scholarship opportunities through the sport of soccer. In terms of the criteria for some of these players, we are looking for a well-rounded individual. What that would mean, is that they have good grades, from high school or even 6th form or from there on. Good performance in the football field and most importantly, well disciplined.”
David Trapp, Cayo U-19 Player
“This is a great opportunity for Belize and I think academic wise, everyone is doing fine. There are quite a few guys who are not attending high school, but going to a training school. I think that there are a lot of guys who can get something out if this opportunity that we have.”
Manuel Martinez, Cayo U-19 Player
“I started studying in Mount Carmel Primary School, where I went to the nationals and we were national champs and then I attended Sacred Heart College and continued playing football. I graduated in 1999 and I am studying at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and I am playing football for Guatemala, Equipo Especial…Categoria Especial de la Universidad de San Carlos Guatemala.”
James Adderly
“What do you think of this opportunity to play in the United States instead of Guatemala?”
Manuel Martinez
“Well, I thank most of all Mr. Bernoshe for making this possible and we are surely going to make Belize big. We are going to do our best and on behalf of my team mates, we promise that we are going to do our best to represent Belize.”
This could be the start of a good thing people and we might just be able to export our football to the rest of the world after all. Of course, if you don’t have dreams they can’t come true.
