An amazing day was had when 70 Under-16 basketball players representing nine male teams and seven female teams, converged on the Vigie Multi-Purpose Sports Complex last Sunday to engage in a one-day event organized by the East Coast Academy (ECA) and sanctioned by the Saint Lucia Basketball Federation (SLBF).
The event had islandwide representation. In the opening round of competition teams battled it out in a series of preliminary matches which included lots of high-flying action and sharp shooting, mainly on the men side of things all looking to secure their spot in the final.
Following the preliminary round it came down to the knockout stage (semifinal). B-Ball Sweatrz 3 versus Kings of the Court 3 met at that stage. The game went into overtime with Kings of the Court nosing ahead 5-3.
In the second semifinal, UDG Dubshots stream rolled over Steph Bookies 11 – 2.
Winning the semifinal round in the female division, Destroying Divas breezed past Choiseul 3 – 0, and Red Rebels 1 defeated ECA 6-0.
In the final showdown between UDG Dubshots and Kings of the Court in the male division, UDG Dubshots proved too hot to handle, and engraved their name on the inaugural trophy winning 6-5. B-Ball Swaterz took home the bronze medals.
In the ladies finals, Red Rebels 1 made light work of Destroying Divas winning 5 -1 to take home the championship trophy and gold medals. Choiseul came in third.
Noah Edward (UDG) won the men’s MVP award. He said: “The East Coast Academy 3×3 tournament was a great one. Not only was there a good level of competitive basketball being played it had a really fun social side to it. All in all a very well organized event that was a lot of fun.”
The female MVP was won by Shermika Blanc representing Red Rebels 1.
Following the event, tournament organizer Glen Guiste said, “Despite the break in terms of competitive sporting events for the past 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the one-day tournament was a resounding success. I’m so proud to be able to give the youngsters the opportunity to meet and compete against their peers and also create an event that attracts players to come back to competitive basketball.”
Objective wise: “The tournament met its objective for ECA. We wanted to give the young players a positive experience and it surpassed our expectations in flying colours. In terms of skills, we knew what we were working with because of the developmental process. The male and female champions have been working with the various coaches attached to the Ministry for Youth Development and Sports for the past two years so there was a difference in skill on centre court compared to the other players who started a few months ago,” Guiste said.
“What we are looking forward to is more of these experiences, now we have made an assessment we know what to work on in terms of skills, technique and tactics we need to develop,” he said.
Guiste thanked the Saint Lucia Basketball Federation, all the participating teams and coaches, Alban (Dennery), Germain Thomas, Ron Du Morville and Andy Santienteban, along with the referees and other officials (timekeepers/ scorers) at the table and the many parents who came out to lend support to the event.
Also taking in the action was the president of the Saint Lucia Basketball Federation (SLBF) Leslie Collymore who congratulated the East Coach Academy for organizing the competition.
“The turnout was incredible given the fact that we have not been able to play much organized team sports since the pandemic and to have nine male teams and seven female teams is testimony to the work the youth coaches have been doing and the developmental plans put forth by the SLBF and of course the popularity of the sport with our young people,” he said.
According to Collymore, “Representation was island wide and one of the highlights for me was the performance of the Choiseul team which placed 3rd in the girls. They trained for only a few months with limited resources.”
“Regarding our plans for the future, we will continue to focus on our youth development initiatives most notably the launch of our grassroots hoops programmes which was to be launched prior to the pandemic. We will also be focusing on our technical development programmes and will be hosting a World WBAC level 1 coaching clinic in the first quarter of 2022 as well as preparation for national teams in the upcoming Caribbean and Commonwealth Games in 2022,” he said, adding that the aforementioned top the Federation’s priority list.
