By Kiev Chesney
The Guyana United States Basketball Affiliates (GUBA) in collaboration with the Haynes Basketball Found-ation on Thursday launched the US/Guyana Goodwill Tour which commenced last night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Representatives of the two organizations announced at the launching a plan to embark on initiatives to aid in the development of basketball in secondary schools.
According to a press release, the GUBA Rockers, who arrived in Guyana yesterday, consists mainly of former Guyana national players.
They were down to oppose the Georgetown Pioneers in the second match of the evening during the quarterfinals of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Associ-ation’s (GABA) Bryden’s Second Division League at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall last evening.
In last night’s opening encounter, Nets took on Bounty Farms Colts while
Dyna’s Ravens opposed Beepat Scorpions in the final game of the evening.
Public Relations Officer of the GABA, Kezqweyah Yisrael, said that his association was honoured to have such experienced players compete during the quarterfinal night of their competition and said that it would be a great opportunity for the up and coming players to see them in action.
“The GABA views this as a privilege to have the GUBA Rockers play in this exhibition game during our tournament as it will give the premier players of this era an opportunity to see more experienced players exhibit their skills,” he said.
One the GUBA Rockers, Howard Peters, who arrived before the team, said that the organisation was established in August of last year with its main objective being to aid in the development of basketball in Guyana.
“The organisation was founded by Horace Chase and Burnell `Bunny’ Mingo to help strengthen the annual Labour Day Basketball Tour-nament in Brooklyn New York, but when members of the organization came to Guyana and saw that there were certain necessities lacking, it instantly became one of the organization’s main goals and joined with the Haynes Basketball Foundation, to aid in provide some of those needs, especially to the youths in the game”, he said.
Peters added that the GUBA Rockers would be visiting high schools in Linden, Georgetown and Berbice to donate basketball equipment including, balls, rims, nets, uniforms and literature on the game.
He mentioned that they also planned to communicate with the Guyana Secondary School Basketball Associ-ation (GSSBA), so that they both can co-operate towards the development of secondary school basketball.
The GUBA Rockers are: Horace Chase, James Brusche, Burnell Mingo, Shelly Hubbard, Hilton `Bonzo’ Weekes, Raymond Padmore, Keith Alexander, Linden Alphonso, Peters, Lester Cummings, Kenneth Chapman, Trevor Vancooten and Paul McLeod.
The team will be coached by former national player Mike Brusche.
They are scheduled to play the Linden Master on Wednesday at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard-court in Linden, before taking on a Georgetown Combined Mas-ters team on the May 3 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall during the Pepsi Sonics Third Division Seven-A-Side Knockout Competition.
The GUBA press release said the organizers intended to make this event an annual one.
