Basketball’s fallen power seems ready to rise again.
Two years after failing to contest a single regional tournament, Barbados appear set to attend four after committing to send both junior and senior squads to this year’s Caribbean Basketball Championships.
Barbados Amateur Basketball Association president Derrick Garrett disclosed his executive’s plans following last weekend’s annual congress of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation in the United States Virgin Islands.
“We are indeed looking at having both junior and senior men’s and women’s teams, and we will try our best to have them represented because I think it is important to re-establish our foothold in the Caribbean,” said Garrett in a telephone interview with NATIONSPORT.
“It might be difficult in terms of finances, and we already sent our juniors to Centrobasket last year, but I can say once there are senior tournaments we will definitely commit to sending the women and men because they haven’t competed since 2007 and 2009 respectively.
It’s the much welcomed news for a former regional powerhouse that soared to the top of the Caribbean’s ranks when ultramarine and gold won both the men’s and women’s titles at home in 2000.
But Barbados haven’t enjoyed much success since, especially with the men, who stumbled to a fifth and two successive sixth-place finishes at the 2006, 2007 and 2009 tournaments, respectively.
Barbados then appeared to hit rock bottom in 2011 when they failed to send either a men’s or women’s team to the Caribbean Basketball Championships for the first time in the competition’s history as the previous executive neglected to seek the necessary funding from the Barbados Olympic Association.
However, the current administration immediately showed a commitment to resurrecting the fallen power by hiring former NCAA Division I collegiate player Brian Good to coach the men ahead of this summer’s tourney.
“With coach Good in place we’re expecting to have the teams properly prepared for the tournament, and I know we have the talent here to make us competitive if not get us back on top,” Garrett said.
“We might not have had international competition for a while but most of the players from the last tournament will still be available, and we have some options overseas in college also available to us as well.”
Trinidad and Tobago are expected to host both the men’s and the women’s tournament in July once the twin-island’s government agrees to help fund both tournaments. St Lucia and Aruba have been shortlisted as possible venues for both the Under-17 girls’ and boys’ competitions.
