Belize Set to Host FIBA U-17 Basketball Championship
Good night and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Paul Lopez. “Passion first and everything will fall into place.” That is a quote from American Mix Martial Artist, Holly Holm. In week six of the Orange Walk Central Women First Division Tournament, Strikers PC Football Club took on San Lazaro Revolution Football Club. Going into this match, San Lazaro Revolution stood at first place and Strikers PC was in second place. The starting whistle is blown.
Three minutes into the game, number twenty-eight for the Strikers Vanelly Santoya controls the ball on the right wing. She makes a pass into the penalty box to her teammate Pricila Villamill who gains control and gently taps the ball into the net for the first point of the match. Thirteen minutes later, it is Santoya once again in control on the left wing. She sends the ball flying across centerfield. Her teammate, thirteen-year-old Christel Tzul outpaces her opponents on the sprint, beats the goalkeeper and scores the second goal for her team. In the twenty-first minute of the match, number six for the Strikers powers the ball from the left wing into the centerfield. Tzul once again, outpaces one defender, getting through a second. With eyes locked on the goal keeper she fires and that is a goal.
Strikers now up by three and the game is a long way from coming to an end. Five minutes later, it’s both Villamil and Tzul on the attack, as the ball is kicked in their direction. Villamill takes control and fires from on top the penalty box. That one goes straight into the net for goal number four. The first half of the match ended with Strikers up by four with San Lazaro unable to get on the score board. Going into the second half, the number one team in the tournament going into week six is now under severe pressure. They must find a response.
We are now at the seventy-first minute of the game. San Lazaro still has not found the answer. Santoya to Villamill from the right wing. Villamill with the lob to Tzul who connects foot to ball and that one goes over the head of the goalkeeper. That’s now a hat trick for Tzul and five goals for her team. One minute later, off the free kick, number sixteen for San Lazaro, Elva Nunez takes control a short distance from the penalty box. Three defenders are trailing her, but she outpaces them all and makes the soft touch to the left post to score her team’s first goal of the match. At the eighty fourth minute, Tzul has the ball outside the penalty box. She goes in and she is tackled hard. Tzul goes down and gets up limping after the referee called a penalty.
Santoya took the penalty and made it count as a sixth goal for her team. With only a minute left in regulation time, off the free kick, here is Nunez once again. She outruns the defenders and is all alone out front. Nunez sizes up the goalkeeper and again goes to the left post with the soft touch. The game ended six points to two in favor of Strikers PC Football Club. At the end of week six, Strikers stood on top of the standings at first place. San Lazaro, the first place team going into week six, fell to third place.
And from football we now move into some basketball action. The Belize Basketball Federation will host the International Basketball Federation’s Under-Seventeen Centro-basket Championship inside the Belize City Civic Center. The tournament kicks off on Wednesday, July twenty-sixth and will continue into Sunday July thirtieth. The games will feature teams from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Mexico and Belize. All teams will battle it out on the court to see who will be the top three teams to qualify for the Under-eighteen Americas Championship. We stopped by the Belize City Civic Center today to speak with some members of team Belize.
Devin Moody
Devin Moody, Shooting Guard, Belize National U-17 Basketball Team
“Our expectation is very high. We plan to come out and give the fans a great show and do our thing you know. Playing with these guys, I really think we have a great chance. This is a great group of young men. We have been putting in the work so the outcome should be good.”
Douglas Langford
Douglas Langford, Center, Belize National U-17 Basketball Team
“My experience is very different. We had some guys that played in the U.S but I believe what I bring to the table helps certain guys, give them little tips, coach them up, uplifts them. That coaching from the U.S, brining that here in on the team and giving those guys a field, I believe it is going to benefit them cause a bunch of them already picked it up. When I first got the call and told, you want to play and practice, it was exciting. It was like you finally get to put your country on your back and run with it. The dudes in the army they got to fight, so you got to do the same thing on the court.”
Jacob Leslie
Jacob Leslie, President, Belize Basketball Federation
“I think it was important for us to host. These young men have never played on a national team before, because of the pandemic. We were out of basketball for like three years, so for the under-seventeen team, they were fourteen. So, none of them have ever represented Belize and I think for them to travel and face the challenge of opposing fans would have been difficult for them. So, I thought the best way to have them medal was to host it at home so that they can play in front of family and friends. We have our young players going out early, so we are bringing back our skilled players who have the ability and resources in the U.S and other parts of the world where they have a program, a regiment where they are training multiple times a day. So when they come in they elevate the level of play we have here.”
And finally for tonight, five Belizean athletes are currently in Costa Rica representing Belize in the Under-Eighteen North American, Central American, and Caribbean Athletic Association’s Championship. They are Lydia Troupe, Glenford Williams, Keemar Wagner, Mia Sylvester and Brooklyn Lyttle. The good news coming out of the last few days of competition is that Brooklyn Lyttle has secured two bronze medals. She clinched the bronze medal in the Women’s Triple Jump and the Women’s Long Jump. We say congratulations to her and the best of luck to the rest of athletes representing our country.
Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.
