By Rawle Toney
David Patterson was elected president of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) when the body held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) yesterday at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) headquarters in Kingston.
Eight voting parties were present with representation coming from the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (2), Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (2), Berbice Amateur Basketball Association (1), Guyana Masters Basketball Association (2) and the Guyana Women’s Basketball Association (1).
The previous GABF elections were held in 2005 and former president Colonel Godwin McPherson, before his passing, had scheduled the AGM for last April.
Patterson, who stood as the former president’s deputy had rescheduled the AGM for last November but then said that the date had to be revised because internally the GABF had some areas of concern that had to be looked at before they went ahead with any elections.
Leading up to yesterday ‘s event, Patterson seemed set to be unchallenged for the post but the nomination of GABA president Trevor Rose by his representatives took the attendees by surprise since prior to the elections, the acclaimed fashion designer had downplayed talks of him contesting the post saying that he had more to offer basketball as head of the GABA.
However, when returning officer, GOA president KA Juman Yassin counted the ballots, it showed Patterson with a majority victory over Rose picking up five of the eight votes. There was one no-vote while Rose grabbed the other two.
Floyd Levi, who served on the previous association as Vice president discipline will now deputise for Patterson after going uncontested.
Dawn Holder also ran unchallenged for the vice president, discipline position.
Ian La Fargue is now the general secretary of the GABF after edging out Eon Andrews by five votes to three. Andrews, who sat on the previous federation as assistant secretary/treasurer was again beaten by the same margin for that post by Berbician Kurt Fraser.
Khemraj Gooberdan was named the new treasurer, taking over from Reginald Williams while LABA president Abdullah Hamid is the new technical adviser.
Patterson’s vision
The newly-elected Patterson then thanked those who placed their trust and faith in him to serve as president and listed some areas of the game which he says are in a critical state.
“I think that first of all, before we do anything where basketball is concerned, I would want us to look into regularising our sub-associations,” said Patterson.
He also said that the GABF would be looking to tap into the Olympic Solidarity funds which he says will help them properly administrate the sport.
He mentioned too that the federation will actively be looking at staging a level one and two coaching certification course here, pointing out that the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) was looking to making sure that all first division coaches are certified and spoke of the possibility of Guyana sending a request to host the CBC U-15 tournament.