Courts present airline ticket to Jacobs

Aug 30, 2008 Sports

– Pacesetters get inaugural insurance

By Edison Jefford
Local furniture giants, Courts Guyana Incorporated presented an airline ticket yesterday to national female basketball player, Nichola Jacobs at their Main Street branch to help her fulfil a scholarship in Antigua and Barbuda.

Jacobs, a Courts Pacesetters forward, was awarded an Antigua and Barbuda International Institute of Technology (ABIIT) scholarship in January to pursue a Bachelors of Science Degree in Business Administration.

The company’s Public Relations Officer, Zeya Nasir–Ramnauth told Kaieteur Sport that Courts attempts to maintain the development of the club on an annual basis and the ticket gesture fell into that frame of priorities this year.

“What we try to do each year is to upkeep them (Courts Pacesetters),” Ramnauth said via telephone yesterday, while outlining Courts’ entire 2008 sponsorship deal for the nationally acclaimed Division One club.

Apart from Jacobs’ ticket, the club received insurance coverage from Hand–in–Hand for the first time in 11 years, basketball sneakers, balls and t–shirts. Courts’ sponsorship for the premier club dates back to 1997.

Courts Pacesetters Chairman, Dennis Clarke was instrumental in getting the ticket from the company for Jacobs. “I thought it was in the best interest of the club and the athlete.

The most important thing was to get her ticket so that she can be there in time (for school). I wrote Courts and they agreed to help,” Clarke told this newspaper yesterday.

According to the local basketball stalwart, Jacobs deserved the ticket since she literally kept local female basketball alive. A few of her team–mates, including Amira Alphonso, attended the handing over ceremony.

Jacobs was offered the erudition opportunity after her dominant performance for a local touring team in January. However, she had expressed reservation about taking up the offer after she returned to Guyana from Antigua.

But in an interview earlier this week, Jacobs, who made appearances at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) championships three times, indicated that she has accepted the scholarship after much thought.

“At first, I didn’t think about it at all–I really didn’t want to leave but I thought about it afterwards and decided to take the offer,” Jacobs stated. She informed that she is expected to leave Guyana next Saturday.

The seasoned player began her career in 1996, making her national debut at CBC’s Junior Championships in Jamaica in 1997 and followed that up in 1998 and 2000 in Belize and Barbados respectively, with senior appearances.