The Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) launched their Regional Conference Championships in the lead-up to the National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF) at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall yesterday. This is the second year the competition has taken the format of having regional championships before the NSBF. There will be five different conferences while Digicel, Banks DIH, Edward B. Beharry and the National Sports Commission have come onboard yet again to support the competition that
is a yardstick for both the male and female teams for the Inter-Guiana Games.
The five conferences will be the Ancient County Conference (ACC) which will include schools in New Amsterdam and Corentyne; the Diamond Regional will have schools from the East Bank; the East Coast County (ECC); the Garden City Conference (GCC) will have schools from Georgetown; and the Linden Big 10 Regional.
Meanwhile the first official conference game will tip off next week Wednesday in the ancient county zone while Georgetown’s conference will tip off next Friday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).
At the press conference coordinator of the tournament, Chris Bowman was quick to acknowledge the renewed support of his sponsors and thanked them wholeheartedly.
Bowman also pointed out that, ”Basketball in Guyana will not have a future if we do not preserve the heritage of the game…sports in Guyana will not have a future if we do not make intentional long-term investments in school sports, our children are our future, they are our heritage.”
Digicel’s Events and Sponsorship Manager Gavin Hope, Banks DIH’s Jenifer Khan and Edward B. Beharry’s Ashwin Alley all thanked the YBG for the opportunity to continue with developing sports at the grassroots level while Hope suggested that the YBG should use methods to encourage parents to come out to the games.
Director of Sports Neil Kumar who has been in league with the YBG since the beginning of the NSBF labeled the tournament as the future success of basketball in Guyana. At the launching of the tournament Kumar said,
“I would like to congratulate Street Solutions (YBG) for their consistency with basketball in Guyana and the tournament will guarantee the future success of basketball in this country.”
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony who was also present at the launching observed that the competition was not just a competition but also a talent spotting activity.
“I have been coming to these launchings and these basketball tournaments and it is not only about the competition but it is also a developmental process for basketball and we would get to identify talent for the future and that is the beauty of the tournament,” Anthony commented.
He noted also that Bowman and his organization had made a bold move to decentralize the tournament from Georgetown.
“What most national federations fail to is to explore for talent outside of Georgetown and to see the competition going to different areas made it a very significant and bold move.
“Every year I expect good things from the tournament and to date Bowman has met all expectations every year,” Anthony concluded.
