Junior basketball players in Region 10 will be dribbling for greater spoils and accolades when the Victory Valley Royals’ fourth annual Schools Basketball Championships are contested in Linden later this year.
This is a result of the organisers getting one of the town’s most accomplished personas in Guyana’s Consul General to New York, Brentnol Evans to be the patron of this year’s event.
This comes amidst efforts by the basketball club’s US-based founder and executive Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso to “bring wider participation and, generally, more novel features.”
Following a meeting with the Guyanese diplomat in New York last November, Alphonso invited Evans’s help with the championships, and got a pleasant response when he (Evans) willingly sponsored the champion team’s trophies and replicas. Evans’s then went further, and consented to be the patron.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Alphonso disclosed that Evans’s association with the championships was the start of similar endeavours to link the community’s high achievers to each year’s competition.
“Their success stories and role model status can be encouraging to the youths in the community, and be beacons for their (the youths’) aspirations.”
He said the club had already earmarked star athlete Marian Burnett to be next year’s patron.
“Her name is a ‘given’ in sports and school circles in Linden, and it is only fitting for her inspiration to the youths to be shared in this way.”
This year’s championships are valued at over $710,000, and every item has been acquired and readied for shipping. The club, which collaborates with the area’s Education Department to run off the games, has indicated that they were “still working on getting the Kwakwani Secondary School involved in the championships.” Last year the school was dominant in wining the national schools championships.
The Victory Valley Royals club has expressed profound gratitude to its usual, enduring sponsors in the USA who have, again, donated to the upcoming championships. Lennox Allicock, Kenny Chapman, Marlon Josiah, Orin Louison, Leon Moe, Audrey Singh and Maxie Stephens are the persons extolled “for their continued immense support to give back and present positive avenues for the youths in Linden.”
In addition, the club is loudly praising US-based Guyanese Sabrina Arjune and her family of Ozone Park, New York, as well as Fatuma Blount and the Blount family of Maryland for “coming on board as new sponsors this year.” Alphonso, who has been integral in arranging these sponsorships, noted that “these ladies have been showing tremendous interest to assist, and their contribution is reminding us to seek to develop a programme for the females.”
Another new feature of the club is the establishing of a website – www.victoryvalleyroyals.com with assistance from the Haynes Basketball Foundation (Twinkillas). The site will carry updates on the championships, and 2006 MVP Roderick Alphonso who played for the Mackenzie High School has been identified as the future webmaster. Since migrating to the USA in late 2006, he has, also, been giving yeoman service to ensure the success of the events for the new pretenders.
Similarly, the club has expressed its confidence in the support of Royston Telford, Ashton jnr. and Marcy Angel of Linden, as well as the management of the Far End Carib Bar and the Linden Economic Advance-ment Programme (LEAP) office. “Our events won’t be successful without the contributions of these people and others
