The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WITH both Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) and Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools championships completed, the focus of attention now switches to the 30th Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic. The prestigious tournament for senior boys is scheduled to begin at Kendal Isaacs gym Monday and is expected to feature 26 teams, including eight from the GSSSA. Ten private schools, including the BAISS, just two from Grand Bahama, two from Abaco, two from Bimini and one each from Central Eleuthera and Spanish Wells are all set to make their debut in the week-long competition. Tournament director Alfred Forbes said they've seen a drop in two teams from last year but they still anticipate that the competition will be keenly contested. With the amount of teams entered this year, Forbes said they will have a compact schedule with five games being played on both Monday and Tuesday, starting at 3:30pm. The opening ceremonies are set for 10am Wednesday at AF Adderley gym before the first of eight games get underway 1pm at Kendal Isaacs gym. Starting 1pm Thursday, eight games will be played and beginning 9am Friday, another 10 will take place. And starting 9am Saturday, the tournament will only feature four games due to the opening of the new Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium. Then on Sunday, the four pool championships will be played. On Monday, the two semifinal games will be played at 11am. The live championship game will be played at 8pm. Forbes said with the limited amount of teams this year, organisers won't have to be concerned about playing too late in the wee hours of the morning. "Last year, those two teams from Grand Bahama - Sunland Lutheran and Eight Mile Rock - are the only two teams who are back this year," Forbes said. Based on the teams entered, Forbes said they were able to evenly spread out the competition with the CI Gibson Rattlers as the top seed in pool one, EMR Bluejays in pool two, CC Sweeting Cobras in pool three and Anatol Rodgers in pool four. The Rattlers, who swept the Cobras in two straight games to win the GSSSA title last week, have been the most successful team in the tournament from New Providence. "I feel pretty good. I felt that we haven't played our best basketball in the championship but we were still good enough to win it," said coach Kevin 'KJ' Johnson as he looks ahead to this year's tourney. "From top to bottom as a team, I still don't think that we played the type of basketball that we are capable of playing but going into the Hugh Campbell, we had a good week to prepare and we will capitalize on the things that we need to make us a better team." Once the tournament gets underway on Monday, Johnson said their goal as usual is to win another crown. Out of the ten trips they made to the finals, the Rattlers prevailed in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. "I think we can do it again. We have a lot of things to put in place but I think the team has the mental capacity to do it," Johnson said. "We will be prepared to play our best basketball when the tournament gets underway."