A NEW champion will certainly be crowned at this year’s National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF), as Chronicle Sport was informed that defending champions Linden Technical Institute (LTI) were disqualified from participating in the prestigious tournament. According to tournament coordinator Chris Bowman, the school, who won the over-all title in 2008 and 2009, used an overaged  player; Orin Rose, even though they were highly knowledgeable that the former junior National player was above the stipulated age limit.
The rules of the tournament states that all players must be under 19 years old as of December 1991 and also mentioned that “a player may be allowed to play for another two years after leaving school if he/she meets the eligibility criteria”. 
Written boldly on the rules is also the fact that “any false declaration by team officials will result in disqualification”, one such rule that was clearly over-sighted on the LTI representative’s behalf.
Rose, who represented Guyana at the Inter-Guiana Games over the past two years, was an instrumental figure on the side and was also honoured along with Shelroy Thomas and Yannick Wade as the three most outstanding players coming out of the NSBF, which is celebrating five years of existence.
LTI played against the University of Guyana on Monday and convincingly won the game after heeding warning from Bowman and other members of Street Solution, who are responsible for the tournament, that Rose was over the stipulated age limit and playing with him would/could lead to them being drastically penalised.
“The rules of the tournament are very clear,” Bowman told Chronicle Sport yesterday, adding that “It’s sad because they were warned before the game was even played and he (Rose) knew that he could not have played because he was among the three persons honoured on Sunday, so it’s just sad to see them leave, but we had no choice because they blatantly disregarded our warning”
It was highly publicised across the print section of the media mostly, about Rose’s absence from the national Champions and how they would cope without him and it is with this Bowman mentioned that they were amused and rather surprised to see the player suited up to play.
“Actually the thing is, I don’t know what they were thinking because everyone knows that Rose can’t play. It was broadcast and even in the papers that he was over age.
We knew he was overaged and so were they … they even forged a birth certificate. Other schools who turned up with such players were warned and they sat out their players so, it’s just sad, again I say, how they had to be sent home,” Bowman said.
Meanwhile, as the competition continues on a daily basis, things are certainly heating up as Kwakwani Secondary are poised on stomping their authority in the tournament.
Playing in what is described as the game of the tournament so far, the school from the Berbice River stunned New Silvercity Secondary 29-27 in their Under-18 clash on Monday.
Dominique Douglas stroked a game-high 15 points for Kwakwani while for the Linden school, their star player and point guard Marlon Pollydore scored a well-played 12 points.
Kwakwani then yesterday thrashed Berbice 53-25 for their second win in as many matches in the category.
Three players from the victorious side reached double digits with Douglas again turning in top-scoring performances this time netting 14 points.
For the school from the ancient county, Dason Rose (11) and Kobe Crawford (10) were the only two players to show any resistance to their opposition.
But it was not such a dull start to the championships for the schools from the mining town of Linden since Linden Foundation Secondary were able to gain a respectable 32-24 points win over School of the Nations with their principle scorer and captain Geoffrey La Rose leading from the front with ten points.