STANTON Rose, the 18-year-old point guard from Kwakwani, has accepted an offer to play for Jacksonville College and will compete on the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) circuit; something he says is a feeling that words truly can’t explain, but sees the move from Guyana as his first step in realising his dreams of playing in the NBA.

“No amount of words could explain how I feel,” Rose told Chronicle Sport last evening upon returning to the Region 10 community in the Berbice River, where he will spend time with his family before winging out to Texas on Saturday.

“I actually start on Monday (August 20), so I’m looking forward to the challenge. I hope to give my best, help the school to win and then see where my journey goes next,” an elated Rose stated.

On June 30, in Paramaribo, Suriname, Guyana celebrated winning their maiden Caribbean Basketball Championship (men’s title), and behind it all was an 18-year-old point guard, who was given the duties as captain at the prestigious regional basketball showpiece.

Stanton Rose placed his name amongst players like Lugard Mohan, Auric Tappin, Stanislaus Hadmon, Lorenzo Withrite and Leon Christian (just to name a few) as some of the most talented to ever suit up for Guyana, but what separates him from the aforementioned great ‘ballers’, is that he was able to bring the ‘elusive’ Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) men’s Caribbean title back to Guyana.

Rose, the youngest player to ever captain Guyana at the CBC Championship, left the 10-team tournament in Suriname as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for his sensational performances, which also include a tournament-high 41 points-performance which came in Guyana’s 104 – 102 double overtime win against St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Rose, who led Guyana to an unbeaten run in the championship, totalled 106 points (third overall), led the tournament in steals, totalling 15 at an average of 2.5 per game, was third in points per game (17.7), third in assist per game, eighth in Rebounds per game and was the fourth best efficient player.

The former Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) National Schools Championship MVP told Chronicle Sport that after his jaw-dropping 41 points performance against St Vincent and the Grenadines, Baylor University had reached out and shown a profound interest.

However, he stated that “I didn’t hear from them (Baylor University) and then a scout reached out to the coach of this College (Jacksonville) and he asked for tapes and they took me right away.”

My mother actually was the one that said grabbed the opportunity, because if Baylor were interested, they would’ve kept contact, so she encouraged me to take the opportunity and make the best of it.”

“I think this opportunity gives me a chance to be where I want to be. I see this as my first step to the NBA, you know, so I intend to go there and work hard, give my best. It’s a two-year school, but the intention is work hard; extra hard because I know I’m from Guyana, so the odds are actually against me at this stage, but I want to impress the other NCAA schools, so I could move on to one of those schools after my two years,” a joyous Rose pointed out.

Rose was adamant that him reaching this far in his career would not have been possible without the help and guidance from his family, Michael Singh and the Colts Basketball Club, Lugard Mohan and Christopher Bowman from Youth Basketball Guyana and also from Ann Gordon, whom he said has been a mentor in his life.