RECENTLY elected president of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) David Patterson says that his executive is coping with its mandate after acknowledging previous weaknesses of the federation. He said they have examined their strengths and “what we are doing at the moment aims to erase and eradicate our weaknesses and build on our strengths.”
These were the opening remarks of a man who, for many years, stood as Colonel Godwin McPherson’s right hand man and who succeeded him to the top basketball seat in the country.
Patterson, who has been around for quite a while, heads a relatively new breed of officials and he is fully aware of the many obstacles which the game has faced in the past, but this will serve him in good stead as he helps to guide the new body towards a fresh start in basketball.
He acknowledged in an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport that one of those strengths “had always been the naturally gifted players. We are blessed in Guyana with very technically, naturally gifted players, but our downfall at the federation previously has been in administration.”
In this regard, Patterson explained, “We did some introspection and we realised that we have to build on our administrative capacity to better serve our players. That is the way in which we will approach our new mandate.”

Administrative Clinic June 26
In looking to get the ball bouncing the new GABF boss indicated “to this end we have been concentrating on capacity building. Not neglecting of course our playing, but we want to do capacity building within our administration, within the clubs, within the sub-associations, coaches, referees as well as keeping our players active and things like that, with the aim that come 2011, Guyana should always be fully representative in any basketball regionally, locally, internationally and things like that. So that’s where we are with our agenda and we decided to carry the federation.”
When questioned on what directly is the federation doing to build its administrative structure, Patterson responded, “As you would know on June 26, we would be having a Club Administration Seminar. This will be conducted by the ‘Reds’ Perreira Foundation and other resource personnel. He is putting together the programme and this will be open to all clubs in the country.’’
According to Patterson it is for “current as well as aspiring clubs and what we will be doing is going through such things as how you organise a club, the club structure, communication, PR, constitution, transfer, record-keeping, responsibilities, lines of communication in the clubs, the responsibilities sub-associations have to clubs and chains of command sub-associations have to the federation and vice-versa.”
Saying that the idea has never really been fully articulated to clubs, Patterson informed that generally clubs don’t really understand what their rights are and what their benefits are.
He said, “We have a lot of clubs who are not really clubs. They are teams, a collection of individuals. So we want to start there, to ensure that we have better clubs so we have better associations and we have a better federation. If we have a better federation, it goes all the way up to help build the sport.” The experienced basketball administrator said this is one aspect, the very basic aspect and that will be done in-house.

FIBA CLINICS
Patterson declared that the GABF was able to secure through FIBA/Americas a FIBA Level One Clinic for coaches that will be held in September or October this year. The intention is that all coaches, current coaches, irrespective of divisions, all aspiring coaches can come and attend this clinic and gain FIBA Coaching Level One International Certification.
This was so as Patterson felt “it therefore means you can’t ask the referees and the players to maintain discipline when the coaches – I mean they obviously are supposed to be leading the teams – have not a clue as to what their responsibilities are.”
He stressed that this was so because a lot of misconceptions can come from coaches who don’t fully understand their role as coach not only during games or during practice sessions. So we will be having a FIBA Level I Coaching Clinic this year in September/ October.
As Guyana has not benefited from FIBA in recent times Patterson said at the last FIBA Americas Conference there was a guarantee “that six months after, the minimum time between writing a FIBA I and FIBA II Course, in March/April 2011 exactly six months after, we will be having a FIBA II Level One Coaching Clinic, where all the successful FIBA I coaches can then go up and write the FIBA II Clinic for coaches.”
He commented, “I was surprised to find out that we only have three FIBA I coaches … Abdulla Hamid, Bernard Daniels and Bobby Cadogan.
“So I am hoping that … at the end of the FIBA I Coaches Clinic all coaches can be FIBA I Certified and at a minimum all first division coaches. So we would insist that if you are going to coach a first division team you must be FIBA I qualified.”
Speaking about the FIBA II Level One Clinic for coaches Patterson related that it is obviously more in-depth and more technical, and only the better ones will gain certification there.
According to him, “It is our intention as well that the national coach for next year’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Senior will be a FIBA II Coach.” He said he was optimistic that the clinics here will ultimately increase the pool of FIBA-qualified referees.
In fact, about seven overseas-based coaches have signalled an interest in attending the courses here including United States-based former national coaches Bernard Daniels and Larry Davis, who have an interest in doing the FIBA II Coaching Course. These overseas-based coaches have recognised the value of earning such certification.
The FIBA I and II coaching courses will be done under the auspices of the GABF and will be free of cost, Patterson noted.
Patterson announced also that there will be a Referees Certification Clinic next year as he acknowledged that Guyana currently has three FIBA-qualified referees namely Sherwin Henry, Lugard Mohan and Aubrey Young.
In addition, there will be a Table Officials Clinic in Linden, Georgetown and Berbice and other areas where the game is being played next year. These are all commitments by FIBA/Americas and the Caribbean Basketball Federation (CBC), Patterson reported.