… hints at February 2021 as next date for Club Championships

By Clifton Ross

SENIOR Men’s National Basketball coach Junior Hercules said his players are following the safety protocols provided by FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball) in order to stay healthy amidst the pandemic.

Hercules, in an interview with Chronicle Sport yesterday, said he wasn’t that optimistic about action returning any time before September, with February 2021 the next projected date for the National Clubs Championships tournament.

COVID-19, according to the coach, has now left the fraternity with no specific time or date as to when ballers can start hooping again. May was expected to host the 2020 Club Championships but due to the lockdown, plans were inevitably curtailed.

Also with the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) closed for quarantine, and social gathering even prohibiting ballers from running scrimmages at outdoor venues like Burnham Basketball Court, Hercules said that it’s basically about staying healthy and following the guidelines until the Government relaxes the curfew and allows live action locally again.

“Keeping all things constant, I don’t think it might be practical to have a tournament now because we rely on the Georgetown Sub-Associations to run their tournaments in order for us to do our seeding,” Hercules explained.

In keeping with backing the newly founded sub-associations, Hercules believed that it was highly important for them to have their feet wet, regarding hosting their tournament. As such, he believed that all current chattels should be directed towards helping such development ahead of the Club Championships.

“More immediately, we will be directing all of our resources to the Georgetown sub-associations in order to help them to have their first successful tournament for the year. It’s likely to be Round-Robin knockout.”

“There is no CARICOM championship this year so I think if we hit some semblance factoring everything by, September we could do a two-month mini-season by then once normalcy hits. By February 2021 we could see leading clubs having their run. Traditionally CARICOM is in June/July so they will be well-prepared,” the coach added.

With health and player safety being key worldwide, the 2019 Male Coach-of-the-Year, said his fraternity is currently in good spirits and ballers are coming up with newer methods to stay fit and get others around them in shape as well.

Hercules further added that while the ballers are basketball-starved, his main focus is ensuring that the sterile state of things within the local basketball community remains intact and FIBA guidelines are continuously followed.

“Our focus is fitness, player safety and engagement. FIBA provided us with guidelines and it’s from that backdrop we will encourage the players and make that information available. I’m working on the coach’s manual and I will be providing excerpts from the international body to further advise teams”.

“The players are eager to get back out but we don’t want anything negative on our hands, so once clearance is given from the government we will have our hand in supporting the sub-associations in order to help them possibly host their first tournament,” Hercules ended.