Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
Jets gear for Championship flight at Mecca III
By Edison Jefford
Amelia’s Ward Jets is gearing for a Championship take off at the upcoming National Basketball Championships:
Orin Rose
The Road to Mecca III, hoping that the journey will help them reclaim the aura and status of being labelled one of the leading clubs in Guyana.
Currently ranked fourth according to the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) within that sub-association, Jets is putting together a roster that it hopes will give them a shot at the title, which no Linden team has won since the 2014 inception of the National Club Championship.
“Basically, I think we got a better chance this time around because we have a better team,” Jets’ Coach, Kevin ‘Two Feet’ Joseph told Kaieteur Sport yesterday, adding that he will not give the names of some of the players he has added to the team.
Notwithstanding, experienced pilots for Jets include the tough Webster brothers: Alister, Adrian and Joel in the front court; Parish Cadogan, Neil Simon and Orin Rose in the back court. Joseph informed that he has others he does not wish to name now.
“I have two good guards,” was all he was prepared to divulge. However, Joseph indicated that he is not only looking at getting past the first round, which begins on March 4, but he is looking at a long flight to the national title, which would be duly historic.
The reality of Jets’ goal to win the title will not only mean the first for a Linden-based team, but it will also give them the honour of taking home the ultimate basketball prize in the year that the country is celebrating 50 years of Independence.
Jets comes up against Linden’s top ranked, Half Mile Bulls in the first round in a game that will be nothing short
Neil Simon
of a blockbuster among two of Linden’s best teams with one place up for grabs in the next round, The Super Eight.
The two teams are familiar foes, both competing in a LABA Mashramani competition that acted as good preparation for them. “All the players played at the Sports Hall before, there is not much difference from what we are exposed to, but we are putting in some good work,” he said when he was asked about transitioning to the indoor venue.
Joseph, who is a former national point guard and Assistant National Coach in 2014 when Guyana competed at the Caribbean Championships in Tortola, is counting on his team to get the job done during what is being dubbed Mega Mecca III.
“I could go out there and put out all the works, but it is up to the players to make it happen. They have to want it just as bad,” the Coach said. Asked if there should be any expectations from them and Joseph quickly retorts “people should look out for us”.
He said that he has already assessed his team’s weakness and realised that most of their games in Linden were lost in the final minutes. According to Joseph, those situations often come down to who plays better basketball in crunch-time.
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