Guyana courting foreign ‘super-player’ for CENTROBASKET

Jun 20, 2017 Sports

-shortlist further reduced to 16 players

By Edison Jefford
A well-placed source confirmed that Guyana’s Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) has been

Jordon Alphonso

using all its overseas-based resources to search for a ‘super-player’, who will be a major asset for the biggest basketball challenge to ever face the country.
Guyana will compete for the first time at the CENTROBASKET Under-17 Championship, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, July 26-30 after qualifying last year with a second place finish at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) U-16 Championships in Guyana.
CENTROBASKET is the Central American Championships and because of the magnitude of the occasion with Guyana being placed in Group ‘A’ with Mexico, Puerto Rico and Bahamas, which had beaten them in the CBC U-16 Final, it was clear from the start that Guyana had to shop super talented players to be in any contention in the Dominican Republic.
After confirming that the federation was actively pursuing this route to improve its roster for the important international assignment, Kaieteur Sport contacted Manager and appointed Head of the Guyana Delegation to CENTROBASKET, Andrew Hercules for an update.
Hercules was not optimistic that the process will yield the desired result. “We would love to have some more ‘bigs’ (centre) and some solid guards based on our weaknesses from CBC, but we are just hearing about some players in the US,” Hercules said yesterday.
According to him, there is nothing finalised yet in terms of names and position. He said that he is aware that some of the players being looked at have passport issues. One of the eligibility rules for players to represent Guyana is that they must be in possession of a Guyanese passport, which all of the overseas-based prospects are struggling to procure.
“Nigel (Hinds, GABF President) wants to see documents not just hearsay. We are hearing about some players but we have nothing on paper,” Hercules said, adding that two of the players, who were part of the CBC team and are now based in the US, will be returning to join the 14 players they have further shortlisted from the initial list of 28 players.
Those two players are forward, Jordon Alphonso and guard/forward, Kevon Wiggins. The other players are Kwesi Roberts, Andrew Johnson, Jermaine King, Royden Glasgow, Akeem Crandon, Kelmar Carmichael, Isaiah Hintzen, Shemar France, Jahleel Young, Nigel Johnson, Denzil Rose, Jether Harris, Jonathan Copeland and Tremain Emmanuel.
The group has so far endured two weekends of excessive conditioning work and will be heading into offensive and defensive drills this weekend. Hercules said that they have to rely on the fact that the group of players have been together since CBC to have some results in the Dominican Republic.
“Our sessions have been good so far. It is an uphill task, but we hope to rely on team chemistry. We are hoping that the togetherness of the team create the team’s DNA. They are expected to be better than last year,” Hercules indicated.
The other group at the CENTROBASKET U-17 Championships includes the hosts, Dominican Republic, Panama, Jamaica and the United States Virgin Islands.

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