Junior basketball will have its day after all.
The country’s best young players are set to take the floor tomorrow as the inaugural Signia Mini-League Basketball Summer Classic bounces off at YMCA with an all-day rally.
The four-day tournament, hosted by Holford Sports Academy and Unity Sports Institute, serves as the perfect showcase for Barbados’ junior players after this year’s Conscendo Under-20 competition had to be cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship.
“We recognize fundamentally that there is really only the schools’ Under-16 and Under-19 tournaments so we’re trying to put a permanent structure for junior basketball,” said Holford Sports Academy managing director Ryan Holford.
“We are calling out all young basketballers as this is open to everyone. We realize that many clubs don’t have youth arms and the schools are out, so a lot of people aren’t in an organized structure right now, but we want them to know this is open to all individuals.
“Although people may not be in a team structure we want them to recognize that they can still come because mini-league basketball has to come to the fore,” he added.
Featuring Under-14, Under-17 and Under-20 divisions, the Summer Classic is just the latest effort to revive junior basketball since the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association first introduced an Under-21 tournament in 2006.
But the league became too burdensome for the governing body to manage, and Conscendo then agreed to take over staging the competition under the auspices of NBA player James Jones a couple years later.
However, Jones stopped funding the tournament last year, before 2011 champs City United failed to field a team for that 2012 edition leading to rumours that the competition had ended.
“This is the first tournament in terms of the revival of mini-league basketball because as I said this age group has to come to the fore for the development of basketball,” said Holford, who currently coaches at Queen’s College.
“We eventually want to move into having a separate girls’ tournament too because they need it, but there isn’t a large enough pool to do that, so we will allow them to play with the boys.”
The Summer Classic will also feature a free coaching clinic today at the YMCA between 9 a.m. and noon before the action kicks into high gear with the all-day rally. (JM)