The sixth Annual Victory Valley Royals Schools Basketball Championship is set to be officially launched on Friday in Linden at the LEND Building (formally LEAP).
On Friday, at 13:00 hours, the schools will receive their gear and balls along with the rules of the tournament and will then prepare for the tip-off which is set for the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court on March 28.
The participating schools will be outfitted with uniforms, compliments of the organizers who were able to have influential persons, mostly living overseas from the Victory Valley community, to give back to sport of Basketball.
The teams set to compete are defending champions Linden Foundations Secondary, New Silvercity Secondary, Mackenzie High School, Linden Technical Institute, Wisburg Secondary, and KwaKwani Secondary.
Under the stewardship and guidance of founder member and former national female coach Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso, the tournament came to fruition in 2005 and has grown into the most anticipated school tournament in Linden.
According to the Victory Valley Royals, the idea of the championships was generated from their observation of a lack of developmental sporting leagues within the schools and community as a whole.
It was through the Royals’ school championship that Akeem Kanhai began his dream, playing for the Mackenzie High School in every tournament except last year’s.
Kanhai won several Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards and began a rivalry with another break out player from the tournament, Orin ‘Six Heads’ Rose who was deemed a sniper for his marksman like aim from behind the three point line.
Many good players emerged out of the competition, including Roderick Alphonso, Neil Chance, Curtis Greavesandy, Kerwin Williams and Javon Nelson but apart from the later, the others didn’t went on to represent Guyana at the national level.
