Bequia Basketball Championships bounce off this Saturday

The 12th Annual Bequia Basketball Tournament opens tomorrow evening at the Clive Tannis Hardcourt in Bequia with thirteen teams registered.{{more}}

It will be another record start, as each year the competition goes ahead as advertised. The date of conclusion is Sunday, August 29.

Young Blazers and Duke are the reigning Second and First Division champions, respectively.

And Sabrina Mitchell, the re-elected President of the Bequia Basketball Association, is anticipating another successful competition.

“All indications are it will be an excellent competition. We will be training three new referees to add to our FIBA referee and our four other referees,” Mitchell, who is also the General Secretary of the Caribbean Basketball and a Board Member of FIBA Americas, said.

“We are hoping for the Bequia All Stars team to travel in the region in April of 2011. Invitations to travel to St. Kitts and Tortola have come in, but a decision has not yet been made,” Mitchell said.

The long standing Basketball administrator also sees the maintenance of the high standards of good public relations, good fiscal management, excellent and efficient organization and the general development of the game as her Executive’s goals for 2010.

“I will continue to hold my executive members to high standards, and I am confident the BBA will remain strong and Basketball will continue to grow in our little island,” Mitchell stated.

Among the achievements of the Bequia Basketball Association, which staged its first competition in 1999, are the financing and construction of a bar and administrative office, the creation and maintenance of a green area – flower garden on the hard court, as well as the purchase of a Daktronics wireless scoreboard, valued at $25,000.

Additionally, the Bequia All-Stars team has travelled to Grenada twice, and Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and St. Maarten once, and hosted visiting teams from Antigua, Dominica and Grenada.

Also during the existence of the BBA, Shem Ollivierre became a FIBA Referee with the procurement of scholarships for Shawn King to Carl Albert State College-now playing pro in Europe, and for Craiglee Sam and Gregg Friday to Ming Chuan University in Taiwan.