– Chris Bowman
Four sessions of try-outs for the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) male Under 20 basketball team took place over the weekend at the National Gymnasium as Guyana prepares for the tournament which is scheduled to take place early next month.
Coordinator of the IGG basketball programme Chris Bowman told Stabroek Sport on Saturday that the purpose of the try-outs was to select the final 12 players to represent Guyana at IGG this year. The male team will be coached once again by former national basketball Captain and FIBA certified referee Lugard Mohan.
Bowman stated that the IGG basketball process has been adjusted this year to suit the circumstances. One of the adjustments of this year’s try-outs was the walk on format.
Seventeen players were invited to participate in this year’s try-out but organisers also allowed all eligible players who felt that they “are up to the level”, to participate in the event.
The prospects that were invited to the try-outs over the weekend included Nikkoloi Smith, Dominic Vincente, Dominique Douglas, Linden Fraser, Martin Weatherspoon, Dave Plass, Travin Drydan, Nyamebekyere Bacchus, Joel Webster, Elvis Thompson, Leonard Primo, Dwight Gray, Shaka Codrington, Jonathan Pooran, Taquain Vieira, Joseph Gilkes and Ahkeel Primo.
Some of the adjustments that had to be made regarded the training sessions of the team since the country’s premier indoor basketball facility, the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, had been utilised for the Indian Science Fair over the last month. Nevertheless, Bowman said that several adjustments were made to compensate for the unavailability of the venue. One such adjustment according to Bowman was giving players personalised training and conditioning workouts to keep them in shape.
Bowman was adamant in stating that the general process was not affected by them not having the usage Cliff Anderson Sports Hall as they managed to improvise.
“We learnt to adapt and adjust to the circumstances so I wouldn’t say that the process has been affected, but I can’t say whether the preparation has been affected because it has not yet been tested,” Bowman said.
The IGG coordinator said that the core of the players that have been called to the squad this year are experienced players. The players called to the try-outs were selected based on their performance at the National School Basketball Festival earlier this year. Bowman said that based on the prospects in this year’s try-outs, he expects that the team will be a mature and experienced unit.
In years past Bowman stated that it had been the approach of selectors to strike the balance between youth and experience in choosing the team to give players a chance to develop and grow in the process.
This year, however, Bowman said that the main objective is to win and with that in mind, selectors will be looking for a “hard-core, veteran team that has been tried and tested” in previous editions. Guyana will definitely be looking to improve on their third place performance in last year’s tournament when they lost to both Suriname and French Guiana. Last year’s captain Dominic Vincente is expected to make the cut again this year along with prolific scorer Nikkoloi Smith as well as leading rebounders Linden Fraser Martin Weatherspoon.
