Belize gets ready for basketball in Barbados
Come July second, our Belizean boys will head to Barbados to battle basketball teams from all over the region and team organizers say they won’t bring back bronze. It’s the 15th CARICOM Confederation Basketball Tournament and it’s up to Belize to claim back to back victory. To that end the Belize National Basketball Association have summoned the talents of Ron Abegglen, a former coach of Webber State University. President of the Belize National Basketball Association, Glenn Tillett, says the chosen coach should dominate the CARICOM courts.
Glenn Tillett, Pres. Belize National Basketball Association
“Belizean fans are familiar with him. He has a long track record, a successful one, 75% winner wherever he has been and he just finished a stint coaching in the British Pro league, which was just recently formed and his team won the inaugural league so there’s no question as to his credentials.”
Hugh Staine, Manager, National Team
“We had the local guys, who are already in practice for about 2 to 3 weeks and contacts were being made with the international players. By Monday of next week, we’ll have a full camp going with about 20 people, the coach will be in by Friday and we’ll be going full session, two times per day, from now until they’re ready to leave.”
“We have certain confirmation from Alex Carcamo, Orlin Simpliss, Darwin Carter, we have, Kirk Smith, he’ll be coming in with the coach and our local players we have Keith Acosta, Fred Garcia, Daren Bovell AC Augustine, and the coach will be looking at some of the younger players such as Chaka Lightburn, Englebert Cherrington.”
Glenn Tillett
“They will receive some money to defray their personal expenses etcetera, but its not a hell of a lot of money. We think that playing for the Belize team is an honour and we think it will enhance some of their careers. We think it will be a feather in some of their career caps and the long and short of it is we don’t have the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of dollars to be paying anybody any large sum of money.”
Janelle Chanona
“What’s the status of Milt Palacio playing?”
Glenn Tillett
“The hundred thousand dollar question. Milt Palacio’s team, the Vancouver Grizzles have a new general manager and a new coach. He’s without a guaranteed contract and following the advice of his agent, he hopes and expects to participate in what they call the Pro Summer League which starts on July 1st. It’s a league where players who have NBA aspirations and want a look from NBA coaches showcase their talents. He really, really, wants to come, we have not signed off on him yet but at this point it looks like he’ll be playing in the summer pro league.”
BNBA estimates it will take approximately a hundred thousand dollars to send a Belizean contingent to the CARICOM Games. The association plans to solicit funds and in kind contributions from local businesses.
