National Basketball Team heading soon to Santo Domingo

Anthony Michael

The Belize National Basketball team is preparing to head to the upcoming Centro Basket Tournament in the Dominican Republic in July. In light of a recent legal victory in the International Court of Arbitration for Sports in favor of members of the national team who played in the COCABA Games in Cancun last year, the faces of the team will for the most part remain the same. It is known, however, that a new head coach is being recruited by the Belize Basketball Federation to lead the national team at the Santo Domingo Games which is a qualifier for the Tournament of the Americas leading up to the 2011 Olympics. Today, the Belize Olympic Committee chipped in with some assistance, that’s in the form of thirty six thousand dollars, that the International Olympic is providing to the Belize Basketball Association as a contribution toward the Santo Domingo Games. Earlier this week, the newly minted Minister of Sports, John Saldivar, met with the National Sports Council. News Five spoke with Anthony Michael, Executive Director of the National Sports Council following the inaugural meeting with Saldivar.

Anthony Michael, Executive Director, National Sports Council

“The minister indicated to us he wanted to meet the basketball federation urgently for the main reason that we have Centro Basket that will be held in Santo Domingo in mid-July.  The team has to leave I think on the fourth or fifth of July so his commitment to the president and executive of the basketball federation today is some financial commitment and the commitment from his government that we will do all that we could to make sure that Belize is well represented out there, not only playing but at a competitive level to at least be qualified within the top three and move on to the Olympics Games.  He indicated specifically for basketball because that’s a priority right now based on international commitments that we have and he has also pledged and made commitments to me through his CEO that he wants to meet with all the additional sporting federations to send that same commitment from his government towards sports.”