FOLLOWING the conclusion of the 2015 Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG), National Schools basketball Festival (NSBF), the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) released the shortlisted names of its male and female team who will begin preparations for the August 6–10 Inter-Guiana Games (IGG). Guyana will host French Guiana and Suriname in the Games that is used to foster closer working relationship among the three nations through sports.
Willan Cameran was named as head coach and Courtney Taylor as his assistant for the 22-man squad that includes: Terron Welch, Dennis Niles (Linden), Stanton Rose, Damair Gladstone, Troy David, Dellon Wallace and Kerrol Phillips (Kwakwani), Daniel Haynes, Timothy Thompson, Nathan Saul, Patrice Agrippa, Sherland Gillis, Sebastian Luke, Jaleel Duke, Daniel Ramlogan, Jonathan Mangra (Georgetown), Neil Wills, Tafawa Daly, Ramone Fogenay, Osafa Profitt, Kevon Wiggins and Marvin Durant (New Amsterdam).
For the women, National female coach Ann Gordon will have 17 players to chose from – Jenelle Belle, Makeda Rogers, Jenna DaSilva, Kennesha Leacock, Anasha Gladstone, Nelosia Mitchell, Andrea Spencer, Asanti Conway (Kwakwani), Makeba Ifill, Georgiana Vyphuis, Jada Mohan, Jada Amerally, Sileena Arjune (Georgetown), Kayla Brush (Linden), Tandika Bouyea, Keisha Sampson and Ronella Lyken (New Amsterdam).
At a recent press conference, vice-president of the GABF, Michael Singh, lauded YBG for playing a major role at preserving and nurturing the country’s future stars of the game while noting that the Federation intends to focus on youth development.
According to Singh, Guyana’s poor showing at the 2015 Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championship, where the team finished at the bottom of the table without securing a win, was a stark reminder that it’s time to rebuild.