Teams gear up for semi-pro basketball
This Friday night will see the opening of the long awaited semi-pro basketball season. Five teams will be competing for the B.B.A. title and tonight News Five’s James Adderley profiles one of them: the Dangriga Isanigu.
The new Semi-Pro Basketball league kicks off its inaugural season on March 19th at the City Centre. On Saturday we visited that venue for a look at Dangriga’s Isanigu making its semi-pro basketball debut.
We join the workout session with one of their set offensive pieces and we must say it was run to perfection. However, perfection is certainly a long way off for this bunch of rookies under first time coach Claude Martin. We must say we were impressed with his authority and his ability to keep the players’ attention, but will that be enough to be competitive at this level. We asked Mervin “Bey” Castillo, the only proven semi-pro player at today’s workout.
Q: “Are you comfortable with the level of ball this team will produce for this season?”
Mervin “Bey” Castillo
“Well I wouldn’t say comfortable, but they are a bunch of rookies so what to do but expect the best from them.”
Q: “You are a proven semi-pro player, obviously you would be the go-to man. Would you be able to shoulder this responsibility and take your team to the next level?”
Mervin “Bey” Castillo
“Come to think of it I am one of the semi-pro guys but on this team we will have three semi-pro players so I will just be one of them who will be able to shoulder some of the responsibilities. The hardest problem this team must overcome is coming out for the first time. A lot of them are not really sure about the floor. We tried getting here as quick as possible but right now it’s too late and we will have to work with it.”
Randy Castillo and Glen Francisco, 2 primetime performers, should suit up with Dangriga providing they arrive in time from the U.S. Nevertheless Dangriga will look to John Reese to get some points.
John Reese
“Well we’ve been waiting a long time for this. Dangriga has never brought a team before. A lot of talented guys have come out of Dangriga like “Shackles,” “Bey,” “Manning” who should be playing with us. So I’m just excited to be with those guys and come out and give a good showing that Dangriga can bring a team and can represent well for themselves.”
Kenrick Fernandez, whose job will also be to manufacture points for Dangriga is not intimidated in his semi-pro debut.
Kenrick Fernandez
“I have played against these players before, Bart and the rest of the guys in several matches so I don’t think it will be a problem matching up with them once again.
We know that the guys here in Belize City play very good ball. For example I know Lamb; he’s playing for Lakers. He’s a very good point guard and these guys give good challenges. So I think for the start it will be really challenging but as soon as things go by it will catch up.”
Here is the Dangriga team’s half court press on defense and it does produce the required results. Again the defense forces a tough throw up to be launched. On offense the team does execute pounding the ball down low for the bucket. Head coach Claude Martin gave us an indication of the problems facing Dangriga in its debut.
Claude Martin, Head Coach, Isanigu
“We started 2 months ago to get prepared. We found sponsorship and then we run into some problems which kinda set us back a little. We’ve been working ever since doing mostly physical, a little bit of plays. We kinda missed out in using the floor. This is our first trip here. After playing in Dangriga and being familiar with the surroundings there we played on a cement floor which was outdoor and I figured it would be good to have the guys come up and get familiar with the floor and the rims, because if we’re going to compete we wanna have everyone properly prepared. So that’s what we’re doing this weekend; we’re practicing today and tomorrow.”
Q: “How comfortable are you with bringing a lot of rookies to the big dance, having been a player yourself and knowing the level of competition that will be displayed out here?”
Claude Martin
“We have to start somewhere. When we made our first trip a couple years ago we were all rookies too and we grew after a couple of years. This is the first year so this will be the maturing year, and we’re just trying to get prepared, getting familiar with the level of competition everything. So the expectations are not all that high; this is for preparation. We are building a team here. This first year everybody gets familiar with the environment; the style of play and next year we can put together and bring a much more competitive team.”
For sure Claude Martin and the Dangriga Isanigu have their work cut out for them, but they have very little time to consider their options. This Saturday, March 20th they open against Travellers Pirates. We honestly couldn’t give them the edge going in but of course in sports, especially in Belize, it’s never over ’til it’s over.
Tomorrow night we’ll take a look at the Travellers Pirates.
