U.B. Black Jaguars bring home Central American gold
Good evening I’m James Adderley with yet another dish of Sports Monday.
Week five of the B.P.F.L. playoffs matched the two leaders inside the M.C.C. Grounds as the Belize Defence Force played host to Hankook Verdes of San Ignacio. In this battle for supremacy it’s the host team looking for first blood when David McCauley flicks this header as goal that forces goalkeeper Jamie Brooks into the save. However, when Victor Nunez takes down Daniel Jimenez inside the eighteen to prevent him from receiving this pass, referee Williams rules penalty. Daniel is given the task of executing the penalty kick and this time he fails his team miserably. Twenty-seven minutes into the ballgame Daniel Jimenez makes amends after receiving this pass from brother, Orlando, he doesn’t get all of it, but the right foot touch is good enough to give Verdes a 1-zip lead. The Military responds with this set piece that sees Jarret Davis launch a left foot that inches outside the sticks. Folks, we’re nine minutes into second half when this misplay by the Verdes defense allows Azzizi Swaso to lay this header on Jaime Brooks for the 1-1 tie. The B.D.F. then looks to steal the W when Nigel Franklin centers into the danger zone only to find Jamie Brooks fully alert. Late in the ballgame, Deon McCauley who came in off the bench gets this chance to win the match for B.D.F. but the left foot screams past the target. The outing concludes in a 1-1 stalemate.
In the other open RFG playoff match up which was staged inside Dangriga yesterday, F.C. Belize bombed Wagiya in a 4-1 blast. Thus with one playoff fixture to conclude the four team playoffs, the Belize Defence Force with 11 points is already into the playoffs. Hankook Verdes with 10 points have a foot inside but needs at least a draw with Wagiya in week six to ensure they make it into the finals. F.C. Belize with 7 points can finish with 10 and do have a better goal difference than Verdes which means they’ll have to beat the Belize Defence Force to have a shot. For Wagiya things remain bleak as they’re yet to pick up a W in this year’s post season.
Meanwhile, with the National team traveling to St. Kitts and Nevis for the away game in their World Cup qualifying series the B.P.F.L. will go on hold until they return. Team Belize goes into St. Kitts and Nevis with a 3-1 lead and is set to depart on March twenty-second for its match scheduled for March twenty-sixth. We certainly take this opportunity to wish them maximum success.
In news from the Super League, Texmar Boys roared to the top of the standings with a 3-1 big W over Forever Strong Kraal Road at the M.C.C. Grounds Saturday night while on Sunday Benque D.C. United stepped up to second place with a four-two win over winless Estrellas. This weekend finds Forever Strong Kraal Road on the road against Texmar Boys Saturday night while on Sunday Benque D.C. United will be hosted by Estrellas F.C. at the Toledo Union Field.
Turning to the cycling scene, congratulations are in order to Erwin Middleton of the Roaring Creek Cycling club who won the eighty mile Junior Cross Country Classic yesterday in three hours, fifty-one minutes and fourteen seconds, beating out Jairo Campos of Team Smart O.W. David Henderson of Team INDECO took third. Hernan Ochaeta of Crystal Cycling Club finished fourth while teammate Daniel Choto rounds out the top five.
Meanwhile folks, the eightieth annual Cross Country Classic is set for this Holy Saturday. It’s a biggy, it’s a tradition strong event but nobody knows as yet where the finish line will be. American Boyd Johnson goes in as defending champion and he holds the record after posting a time of five hours, forty-seven minutes, thirty-three seconds last year. People, I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned, when we know, you’ll know. Still in cycling, Kevin’s Barber Shop is back in non-riders racing business and here is Kenneth Sutherland grabbing the W as Wilimot Simmons takes second, Eric Gordon pulls up third, Cruz Guerra takes fourth and Darell Reyes rounds out the top five.
Finally folks, the University of Belize basketball team made the nation proud by grabbing gold out the Central American University Basketball Competition which concluded at Costa Rica over the weekend. We caught up with the crew this morning.
Lindberg Graham, Captain, U.B. Black Jaguars
“First and foremost yoh know we dah family; the U.B. family. Heart, hustle, wi immediate family, they yah dah thing them weh drive wi fi do weh we love, play ball. Now fi go represent Belize eena Central America yoh di go up gainst big teams. Some universities have eighty thousand people with they we only have like three thousand people. That dah the odds weh yo di play gainst. You look fi have wah team nine man deep. The experience just overwhelming, yoh understand me?”
Steven Williams, Co-Captain, U.B. Black Jaguars
“I had some big games. I had some twenty point games, yoh know but my thing to it is it’s not the amount you score, it’s my team. We play as a family, guys look to me to score, I do what I gotta do and thanks to all.”
James Adderley
“Tell me what this gold medal means to you.”
Steven Williams
“You know, like I said before it’s a feeling, it’s something hard to explain but I’m loving every moment of it and I’m always dreaming of winning something like this and now it’s here and I’m just gonna live it.”
Kevin Siroki, Head Coach, U.B. Black Jaguars
“I knew we had an opportunity, we had a chance to win after I’ve seen all the teams play after the first day. We decided to get my guys to believe that we could beat these guys and that’s what it was about. After our first day we knew that’s why we pressed everybody, we pressed and by the fourth quarter—they may have had a lead early but by the fourth quarter all the others teams were very tired and that’s how we started, that’s how we won.”
James Adderley
“So what does Belizean basketball take away from this incredible performance?”
Kevin Siroki
“What it takes away is what hard work gets you and what it really takes away also is kinda support, if you have support from the community. Obviously the University of Belize pays for everything for these guys; their on full basketball scholarships so if we can get the support from the government, obviously and the university still—the university is definatley behind us—what we want to do as not even basketball but in our sporting department at the University of Belize is get volleyball, football, female softball everything else, get more people involved and it comes with support. As long as you have support. Look what happened in 98’ they had support and what happened they got a gold medal. So that’s what it is all about, support and people behind you.”
The man who put it all together is U.B.’s Athletic Director Kirk Shabba Smith and he gave us this particular perspective.
Kirk Shabba Smith, U.B. Athletic Director
“First it started off with Dr. Louis Zabaneh. He was the one that started this whole programme with twelve scholarship guys and from then we just work on it. We have two guys that graduated last semester, so we were just looking for a couple guys to fit in and Travis came in from Wesley High School and we picked up a couple guys and we just mold them thanks to our coaches; Mr. Kevin Siroki and along with Mr. Bovel and Mr. Claude Jones and they just continued to work with these guys to mold them and that’s what really kept us together.”
James Adderley
“What was the edge from your perspective at Costa Rica for the Belize team to go all the way to gold?”
Kirk Shabba Smith
“To me it was a lot of shape. These guys practice six a.m., nine at night an they just really working hard relentlessly, put in everything, they talk to each other and just, like I said, keeping it together and just play as a team. Like I said, these guys win against some real men out there. A couple of the guys from Panama, I played against in a national team so that should show you the type of level these guys were facing and they just, like I said, they ran them out of the gym. So shape played a very big part of it.”
The fact is folks, if you don’t have dreams they can’t come through. We take this opportunity to tell Dr. Louis Zabaneh yes, you were right, we were wrong. That’s it for now though. We in you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
