Anyway, I figured that while I was there, and since it was raining, I might as well check out the results of the effort. I braved the torrent of water cascading down the stairs and made it to the top and entered the building. To my surprise, I found that our brand new court, which had arrived that same weekend, was almost in a state of readiness. As for the court itself, it is a thing of beauty. Any true blooded Belizean will be made proud to see our coat of arms proudly displayed at center court and the name Belize sketched in big bold letters under each basket. I am still not convinced however, that this is not something that could have been built right here at home, and for a fraction of the cost. Anyway, my excitement over this new court was quite short-lived as I then notice that there was still quite a bit of water on the floor. “In all fairness” I am told, “it is not nearly as bad as it used to be.”

Somehow, I am not comforted. We have spent mega bucks on this complex and continue to pour more money into it. 4 million plus in the past, fifty odd thousand in the present and yet a future that looks quite wet. And poor Garnet is now bound to a five-year guarantee. Garnet, a salesman/preacher/contractor is the man who out has been given the contract and to his credit, he has fixed quite a few of the preexisting leaks, especially those directly over the court. The fact remains however, that for as much as we have spent on this new court, and if I remember correctly it is somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred thousand, we will have to make sure that it does not get wet. If it does, just like the other nice court we had awhile aback, it will deteriorate in just a few short years. Can we really afford to let this happen?

There is of course another problem, which is that much of the water that enters the Civic does not even come from the roof but instead from near the corner of the floor, which is actually not covered under Garnet’s contract but will also have to be fixed if we are to protect our investment. We were assured at a press conference on Tuesday that this in fact, will be done. Forgive my skepticism, but when I see it, I will believe it.

Nevertheless, wet Civic or not, it looks like all systems are go for the 14th CARICOM games. The best from the entire Caribbean including Jamaica and Antigua will be coming to Belize and with many of these guys straight from division A play in the good ole USA, Belizeans can look forward to a display of some high quality basketball skills. More than a couple of these athletes have excellent chances of making it to the NBA and who knows, maybe the next time we see one of them, it will be in a Sprite or a Nike commercial. What a thing if it would happen to be one of ours.

As for our own team, last we checked, the roster was still not set. This means that we’re probably looking at less than two weeks of practice time, and as far as basketball teams go that is not an awful lot of time. Even the famous dream teams of America, which features some of the greatest players in the world are given more time to gel. Yet, I tend to agree with coach Greenwood when he suggest that if these guys are in fact in good physical shape, then the most important factor after that will be just a burning desire to win. Let us hope that after all the money we are spending on this venture, that we will at least receive respectable representation. To all the athletes males and females, good luck and Godspeed.