The Street Solutions Organization and the National Sports Commission, in collaboration with the Department of Education, will team up this year to launch the fifth anniversary edition of the National Schools Basketball Festival this morning at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

The event which is organized by the Street Solutions Organization and the NSC will jump off on June 27 and continue throughout to July 5 with games being played from 1.00pm to 8:00pm on weekdays and weekends at the CASH.
Coordinator of the basketball festival, Chris Bowman disclosed to Stabroek Sport via email yesterday that the tournament is aimed at developing and maintaining a well coordinated basketball championship, which will improve on the existing basketball infrastructure in schools and communities across Guyana. It also aims to promote the development of good sportsmanship and youth development.

The tournament will be contested by students aged 11-19 and participating schools will be able to compete in four categories, Under-16, Under-18, Open and Female. All categories will be played over two rounds.

The organizers have also scheduled a High School All-Star game, three-point shootout, free-throw shootout, and dunk contest, which will be incorporated in the tournament.

According to the organizers, they expect a more exciting tournament this year as it has steadily improved since the first such festival was held from June 26- 30, 2006, involving 18 schools in a single round elimination tournament.

The event, which was sponsored in its first year by DDL, under their Mountain Dew brand, has gained popularity and has seen a major increase in sponsorship.  The tournament now has more than 28 schools participating in four championship divisions.

The event is also used to identify and select players for the Inter-Guiana Games junior national basketball team and is widely acknowledged as the unofficial National Schools Basketball Championship of Guyana.