THE Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) yesterday shortlisted 19 players after holding tryouts over the weekend, as their preparation for the 21st Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships shifts into high gear.

Bahamas will host the Championships from 23 to 29 July in its capital city Nassau and the GABF had called 35 players to tryouts at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall where the selection panel announced the names of those who would continue training after yesterday’s final workout.

Coaches Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadagon, Abdullah ‘Zico’ Hamid, Mark Agard and Lugard Mohan were all tasked with taking the players through their paces and were also part of the selection team that was headed by GABF Vice President Commander Floyd Levi along with Cecil Chin.

The players shortlisted are: Kevin Joseph, Kevin McKenzie, Rodwell Fortune, Travis Burnette, Steve Neils Jr, Shelroy Thomas, Ryan Stephaney (Guards),  Andrew Ifill, Stephon Gillis, Akeem Kanhai, Neil Marks, Louis James, Randy Richards (Forwards) and Dwayne Roberts, Kurt Elias, Jermaine Slater and Shane Webster (Centers).

Speaking to the players gathered prior to the announcement of the team, Levi thanked them for turning up and showing interest in the GABF’s vision and for supporting their cause in returning an all local team to the CBC Championships.

Levi words were echoed by GABF president David Patterson who said that yesterday was the beginning of his Federation’s road to the CBC and the players turning up to be part of the tryout all shared their vision that the team selected to attend the tournament in the Bahamas would be part of something great.

It was said that the players will now be training every Tuesdays and Thursdays (8-10 pm) and Saturdays and Sunday (7 – 10 am) until the final composition of the squad is selected, during July 8-10.

Meanwhile, no word was given when the three overseas players in Ifill, Elias and McKenzie will be joining the squad for practice, with Levi stating that the GABF is still in discussion with them to ascertain their earliest availability.

Kanhai, deemed as the “poster boy” for Guyana Basketball over the past two years gained a step closer to finally matching his skills with the Caribbean’s best at the highest level, so too is Roberts who many regard as one of Guyana’s top forwards.

Neils and Ifill were part of the team in 2000 that was captained by Mohan in Barbados when they placed third in the competition which was then called the CARICOM Championships, but visa woes kept both Neils and Ifill out of the team that participated in Puerto Rico in 2007 as Guyana failed to be represented in 2009.

Guyana in the heydays of the sport, were considered a force to be reckoned with even though the males’ highest placing at the tournament that started in 1981, was second (beaten by Barbados) in 1994 when the tournament was hosted on home soil for the last time (1981 and 1988 were the other times Guyana hosted the tournament).

Cadagon offering a comment after asked of his thoughts on the team’s preparation with the tournament weeks away said “Its not adequate time going to a championship of that magnitude but the time that is allotted to us we’ll be using to focus on some specific areas like conditioning because our players have to be up to a certain level, they have to be physically and mentally fit”.

He further added, “Five weeks is not much time, but we’ll do as much as we could as coaching staff and make an impression of what Guyana’s basketball is all about.”