Paradise Showdown International Basketball Tournament…
YOUTH Basketball Guyana is sending the country’s first representative team to the third Paradise Showdown International Basketball Tournament from October 2–8, 2026.
Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) will be sending a U-15 School Boys Select Team to represent Guyana in St. Maarten.
A 25-member shortlist was training on Wednesday and Thursday, and a final 12 selected after evaluation and suitability for the squad.
The 12-member team was selected from a group of promising student-athletes that competed in the National School Basketball Festival (NSBF) hosted by YBG.
The players who made the cut are Dimitri Singh (Queen’s College), Kellon Lyte (Skeldon Line Path Secondary), Brentnol Archer (The Bishops High School), Dion Moore (Hope Secondary School), Deshawn Gurrick (Queen’s College), Romario Munroe (JC Chandisingh Secondary), Carlson Matheson (Berbice High School), Brad Cush (St. Rose’s High), Liam Bart (Queen’s College), Daniel Cox (St. Rose’s High), and Jacob Hilaire (St. Rose’s High).
Coach of the team Warren Wilson revealed to Guyana Chronicle that the tournaments like the NSBF are needed to help increase the talent base of their age group players.
“2016 was the last time U-15 participated in any international competition or regional competition, and that was Centro Basket, so we decided that because we have a good talent pool of U-15 players, we needed to make this effort.”
Wilson says they were elated with the spread of talent available for selection.
“It is very encouraging because normally a lot of times we would only see talent in Georgetown, but this year we have been able to spread wide; a lot of the talent has come from Berbice and even some from Arima, and we are very excited about it making for a good competition.”
The long-time club-winning coach says this will help give locals the necessary experience and exposure as they look to further their growth in the sport.
“As it is right now, they are only accustomed to the NSBF, which is what we play in Guyana, so being able to take them to see their counterparts and understand that their counterparts are a bit ahead of us, because they started playing basketball at 10 and have been competing since under-10. This is basically their first time competing outside of Guyana as a Guyana national team and I really think that this will give them the right mental thought as they prepare to go higher to under-18s and then seniors.”
Director of YBG, Chris Bowman, said, “We see this as more than simply taking a team to another tournament. It is about creating a stronger development pathway for young basketball players; there are still too few opportunities for meaningful regional and international competition at the U-14/U-15 level, and we want to help close that gap by giving promising student-athletes exposure to higher-level competition and experiences that can prepare them for the next stage of their development.”
