DIRECTOR of Youth Basketball Guyana Chris bowman believes their select team to the Paradise International Basketball Tournament in St Marteen had a successful tournament despite not returning with silverware.
Bowman, for the first time sent a representative team to the Annual U15 Paradise Showdown International Basketball Tournament in St Marteen where they faced the likes of the hosts, Aruba, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis and Tortola (BVI), among others in a five day round robin competition.
Speaking recently, he continued that the exposure allows them measure the growth of players.
“The team played four games, winning two and losing two, and finished fifth among eight teams. While we believe we had the potential to finish higher, the results were secondary to the larger developmental purpose. The experience gave our players and coaches a clearer understanding of the standards required to compete successfully at the regional and international levels,” he said.
He noted that youth development is a continuum and exposure allows you to measure ability, identify strength and weaknesses which will better inform training and development.
While heartened by the team showing, YBG says they had some encouraging individual performance which stood out in the tournament.
“Five of our student-athletes were selected to the Paradise Showdown International All-Star Team, and significantly, all three of our players from Berbice were among those selected. Team Captain Deshawn Gurrick was selected to the All-Tournament First Team, while centre Carlson Matheson earned All-Tournament Second Team honours.”
“While we are pleased with those individual recognitions, one of the things we were most encouraged by was the growth of the group collectively. At this age, the focus has to remain on development rather than simply identifying stars. We want each player to understand what he does well, what needs improvement and what work is required next.”
BVI Tortola defeated Sint Maarten 85–83 in a tight championship final to win the U15 title and Bowman believes that they still achieved their year one objectives.
“Our primary objective was to provide meaningful international exposure for a group of young student-athletes at an important stage of their development. We also wanted to assess the standard of junior competition within this part of the Caribbean, evaluate our own players in that environment, and determine whether this could become part of a repeatable development model for YBG.”
He says that YBG goal now is to focused on strengthening the programme and creating structured U15 and U17 development tracks, incorporating year-round training, regular competition, player evaluation, academics, leadership development and carefully selected international exposure.’
