By Rawle Toney

STANTON Rose Jr, the flashy point guard who created history in 2018 when he captained Guyana to their maiden Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) title, announced that he is moving to the San Antonio, Texas-based University of St Mary’s, to continue his collegiate career and journey to professional basketball.

Rose will now compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division-2 with University of St Mary’s, after featuring in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) with Jacksonville College and Panola College.

“Blessed to announce that I’m going to continue my basketball and academic career at the St Mary’s University….a big thank you to all those been riding with me from start and will be there in the end,” the talented guard said.

“Thank you coach Aaron Smith for allowing me to show my talent; Ann Gordon and Dave Causeway, you guys created something special. Thank you to Coach Christopher Jackson Charles, I’ve learned a lot from you in a very short time. I will never forget the teaching of coach Willon Cameron, Junior Hercules, Lugard Mohan,  Chris Bowman; special thank you to you guys because you all played a major role in my basketball career,” said Rose.

He also thanked current president of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), Michael Singh, who also served as president of Bounty Colts basketball Club, for moving him to Georgetown and allowed him to be part of his club.

Rose, who hails from Kwakwani, a small community in Region 10, located on the Berbice River, wrote his name in Guyana basketball’s history books, when he, as an 18-year-old, captained the country to their first CBC Championship, when the tournament was hosted in Suriname.

The flamboyant player was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament 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.

He totaled 106 points (third overall), led the tournament in steals, totaling 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.

Stanton Rose placed his named 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 able to bring the ‘elusive’ John Yates trophy back to Guyana, and being the youngest ever to do so.