By Iva Wharton
The after-school female basketball programme is seen as the nursery of female basketball in Guyana and it has attracted girls from various schools in the city, who are said to be improving “leaps and bounds”.
The programme was started last year by basketball coach Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan who spoke to Stabroek Sport as he was going through a training session with the girls at the Cliff Anderson Sport Hall.
“This is a combination of the after-school programme and the girls IGG prospects who will be representing Guyana at the Inter-Guiana Games.
Most of the girls on the IGG graduated from the after school programme.”
Asked how the girls have progressed since they started last year, Cadogan said that they have improved leaps and bounds.
“I am very proud of this bunch, actually they will be involved in some competitions in the national community basketball league. They will be playing some games in it, I think they will be playing five games against the senior girls.”
That, he said, will further allow him to test their development. “They were part of the team that went to IGG last year in Suriname, of course they lost both games, but there were significant improvements from previous years.”
Most of the girls, he said, still have another two or three years to participate in the tournament.
The programme, he said, has approximately twelve girls but the original number has been significantly reduced.
“The programme I started last year attracted a number of girls but some of them stepped out because of other commitments family wise and so on.”
On Wednesday there were about seven girls in training and Cadogan explained that exams were responsible for the others not being there.
Asked how he recruits his players, Cadogan said that the girls would do their own recruiting and they have done well in getting others involved in the sport.
Students from Queen’s College, Central High and South Ruimveldt are among the group he is working with.
“What has been happening of lately is that some girls from netball joined basketball, so we have three netball players who have made that transformation from netball to basketball. It is much easier for me as a coach because netball players already have some fundamental skills which have made it easier for them to make that transformation from netball to basketball.”
According to Cadogan, he has a good core group which he is working with and he is confident that they will go into the next senior basketball team.
Training sessions are on Mondays and Wednesday from 16:00 hours to 18:00 hours at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).
